Tomohiro Kurosaki's group (Lymphocyte Differentiation) and others elucidated the selection and generation mechanism of memory B cells from germinal-center (GC) B cells. They found that light-zone GC B cells with B cell antigen receptors of lower affinity were prone to enter the memory B cell pool predominantly during early GC reaction. They also addressed that cells in this memory-prone fraction had higher expression of the transcription factor Bach2. Selection of various GC B cells of relatively low affinity into the memory B cell compartment at an early time frame might provide a means with which to maintain poly-reactivity in the memory B cell pool, which would be required for protection from recurrent infection of viral variants.

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Tomohiro Kurosaki
Lymphocyte Differentiation
Immunology Frontier Research Center (WPI-IFReC), Osaka University