
What do B cells secrete when they divide?
B cells can activate themselves through a process called T cell-independent antigen stimulation. They divide to form daughter-cell clones that can only secrete IgM antibodies. Plasma cells secrete antibodies that attach to the type of antigen that was first processed by the naïve B cell.
How do B cells turn into plasma cells?
B-Cell. B-cells become Plasma Cells When a B-cell receptor connects to its specific antigen, a Helper T-cell releases chemicals that tell that B-cell to divide many times. This makes an army of B-cells with the perfectly shaped B-cell receptor to connect to the invader in your body. Many of these B-cells quickly turn into Plasma cells.
What is a B cell type?
Definition. B cells or B lymphocytes are part of the adaptive immune response. Once activated, these white blood cells produce antibodies. B lymphocytes have further roles as antigen-presenting cells and cytokine secretors. This cell type is classified into four main groups: transitional, naïve, plasma, and memory B cells.
How do cells divide?
How do cells divide?: MedlinePlus Genetics How do cells divide? From Genetics Home Reference. Learn more There are two types of cell division: mitosis and meiosis. Most of the time when people refer to “cell division,” they mean mitosis, the process of making new body cells.

Do B cells divide by mitosis?
Upon activation through the B cell receptor or Toll-like receptors, B cells rapidly divide3 and differentiate into mitotically cycling plasmablasts, post-mitotic terminally differentiated plasma cells or memory B cells4,5.
How often do B cells divide?
Separation of naive and memory B cells according to expression of CD27 indicates that naive peripheral blood B cells divide slowly (0.46% per day), while memory cells proliferate more rapidly (2.66% per day).
Why do B cells divide?
Conventional B-2 cells can only divide in response to antigen and give rise to memory or plasma cells in the periphery; more naive B-2 cells must be produced from progenitors in the marrow.
How do B cells multiply?
Interaction with antigens causes B cells to multiply into clones of immunoglobulin-secreting cells. Then the B cells are stimulated by various cytokines to develop into the antibody-producing cells called plasma cells.
What's the difference between T cells and B cells?
T cells can wipe out infected or cancerous cells. They also direct the immune response by helping B lymphocytes to eliminate invading pathogens. B cells create antibodies. B lymphocytes, also called B cells, create a type of protein called an antibody.
What happens after B cells divide?
Basic Knowledge of Immunology After activation by antigens, the B cells divide rapidly, with the same binding site as the starting B cell. The activated B cells differentiate into plasma B cells, which have a powerful ability to secrete antibody.
What do the B cells do?
B-cells are the type of cells that produce antibodies to fight bacteria and viruses. These antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that are specific to each pathogen and are able to lock onto the surface of an invading cell and mark it for destruction by other immune cells.
Why do B cells divide by mitosis during an immune response?
They play an important role in humoral immune response. They remain in bone marrow until they are mature and then spread throughout the body concentrating in lymph nodes and the spleen. B-cells are activated by t-cells. B-cells divide by mitosis to give a clone of plasma and memory cells.
What is the role of B and T memory cells?
Memory B cells, like memory T cells, help the immune system respond more quickly to future invasions by the same agent.
What do B cells do once activated?
Once activated, B cells participate in a two-step differentiation process that yields both short-lived plasmablasts for immediate protection and long-lived plasma cells and memory B cells for persistent protection.
What is the major functional difference between B cells and T cells quizlet?
B cells are activated by free-floating antigens in the blood or lymph. T cells are activated by membrane-bound antigens. One has a major role in antibody production, while the other has a major role in cytotoxicity. T cells are produced in the thymus and B cells are produced in the bone marrow.
How B cells are activated?
B cells are activated when their B cell receptor (BCR) binds to either soluble or membrane bound antigen. This activates the BCR to form microclusters and trigger downstream signalling cascades.
Why do B cells divide by mitosis during an immune response?
They play an important role in humoral immune response. They remain in bone marrow until they are mature and then spread throughout the body concentrating in lymph nodes and the spleen. B-cells are activated by t-cells. B-cells divide by mitosis to give a clone of plasma and memory cells.
How does B cell tolerance develop?
Tolerance is regulated at the stage of immature B cell development (central tolerance) by clonal deletion, involving apoptosis, and by receptor editing, which reprogrammes the specificity of B cells through secondary recombination of antibody genes.
How do B cells become activated?
B cells are activated when their B cell receptor (BCR) binds to either soluble or membrane bound antigen. This activates the BCR to form microclusters and trigger downstream signalling cascades.
What are the stages of B cell development?
As they develop, B cells go through 6 stages: They start as common lymphoid progenitor cells, then become early pro-B cells, then late pro-B cells, then large pre-b cells, then small pre-B cells, and finally immature B cells.
Where Do Cells Come from?
Sometimes you accidentally bite your lip or skin your knee, but in a matter of days the wound heals. Is it magic? Or, is there another explanation?...
How Many Cells Are in Your body?
You and I began as a single cell, or what you would call an egg. By the time you are an adult, you will have trillions of cells. That number depend...
How Do Cells Know When to Divide?
In cell division, the cell that is dividing is called the "parent" cell. The parent cell divides into two "daughter" cells. The process then repeat...
Where do B cells get their name?
It is true that most blood cells are made inside the bone marrow, but that is not where the “B” in B-cells came from. Their name comes from the name of the place they were discovered, the Bursa of Fabricius. The Bursa is an organ only found in birds.
What is the difference between T cells and B cells?
An important difference between T-cells and B-cells is that B-cells can connect to antigens right on the surface of the invading virus or bacteria. This is different from T-cells, which can only connect to virus antigens on the outside of infected cells. Your body has up to 10 billion different B-cells.
How do B cells turn into plasma cells?
Many of these B-cells quickly turn into plasma cells. Plasma cells make and release antibodies that connect to the same antigen as the original B-cell receptor. Plasma cells make thousands of antibodies per second, which spread throughout your body, trapping any viruses they see along the way.
What happens when a B cell receptor connects to its specific antigen?
B-cells become plasma cells. When a B-cell receptor connects to its specific antigen, a Helper T-cell releases chemicals that tell that B-cell to divide many times. This makes an army of B-cells with the perfectly shaped B-cell receptor to connect to the invader in your body.
Why are B cells important?
Actually, B-cells are as important as T-cells and are much more than just a final clean-up crew. They make important molecules called antibodies. These molecules trap specific invading viruses and bacteria. Without this line of defense, your body would not be able to finish fighting most infections.
How many B cells are there in the human body?
Your body has up to 10 billion different B-cells. They’re too small to see with your eyes, but if you lined them all up, they’d be longer than 100 soccer fields. With so many different B-cells patrolling your body, you are ready to fight almost any invader. B-cells become plasma cells.
Which immune cell makes antibodies?
Plasma cell: an immune cell that comes from B-cells and makes and releases antibodies.
How do B cells develop?
Early B cell development: from stem cell to immature B cell. B cells undergo two types of selection while developing in the bone marrow to ensure proper development, both involving B cell receptors (BCR) on the surface of the cell. Positive selection occurs through antigen-independent signaling involving both the pre-BCR and the BCR.
Why are B cells called B cells?
They are named as such because they are able to induce a humoral response in organisms that lack T cells. B cell response to these antigens is rapid, though antibodies generated tend to have lower affinity and are less functionally versatile than those generated from T cell-dependent activation.
How do memory B cells work?
Memory B cell activation begins with the detection and binding of their target antigen, which is shared by their parent B cell. Some memory B cells can be activated without T cell help, such as certain virus-specific memory B cells, but others need T cell help. Upon antigen binding, the memory B cell takes up the antigen through receptor-mediated endocytosis, degrades it, and presents it to T cells as peptide pieces in complex with MHC-II molecules on the cell membrane. Memory T helper (T H) cells, typically memory follicular T helper (T FH) cells, that were derived from T cells activated with the same antigen recognize and bind these MHC-II-peptide complexes through their TCR. Following TCR-MHC-II-peptide binding and the relay of other signals from the memory T FH cell, the memory B cell is activated and differentiates either into plasmablasts and plasma cells via an extrafollicular response or enter a germinal center reaction where they generate plasma cells and more memory B cells. It is unclear whether the memory B cells undergo further affinity maturation within these secondary GCs.
What is the B cell coreceptor complex?
B cell activation is enhanced through the activity of CD21, a surface receptor in complex with surface proteins CD19 and CD81 (all three are collectively known as the B cell coreceptor complex). When a BCR binds an antigen tagged with a fragment of the C3 complement protein, CD21 binds the C3 fragment, co-ligates with the bound BCR, and signals are transduced through CD19 and CD81 to lower the activation threshold of the cell.
How do B cells migrate to SLOs?
At the SLO, B cell activation begins when the B cell binds to an antigen via its B CR.
What type of cell receptors are expressed by B cells?
B cells, unlike the other two classes of lymphocytes, T cells and natural killer cells, express B cell receptors (BCRs) on their cell membrane. BCRs allow the B cell to bind to a specific antigen, against which it will initiate an antibody response.
What is the name of the cell that proliferates when activated by an antigen?
When a naïve or memory B cell is activated by an antigen, it proliferates and differentiates into an antibody-secreting effector cell, known as a plasmablast or plasma cell. Additionally, B cells present antigens (they are also classified as professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs)) and secrete cytokines.
How do cells divide?
How Cells Divide. Depending on the type of cell, there are two ways cells divide—mitosis and meiosis. Each of these methods of cell division has special characteristics. One of the key differences in mitosis is a single cell divides into two cells that are replicas of each other and have the same number of chromosomes.
What is the name of the cell that divides?
In cell division, the cell that is dividing is called the "parent" cell. The parent cell divides into two "daughter" cells. The process then repeats in what is called the cell cycle.
Where Do Cells Come From?
3D image of a mouse cell in the final stages of cell division (telophase). (Image by Lothar Schermelleh)
What is a diploid cell?
Diploid cell: a cell with two sets of chromosomes (46 chromosomes total)... more (link is external) DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): molecular instructions that guide how all living things develop and function... more (link is external) Haploid cell: a cell with only one set of chromosomes... more (link is external)
Why do we need to make new skin cells?
Some cells, like skin cells, are constantly dividing. We need to continuously make new skin cells to replace the skin cells we lose. Did you know we lose 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every minute? That means we lose around 50 million cells every day. This is a lot of skin cells to replace, making cell division in skin cells is so important. Other cells, like nerve and brain cells, divide much less often.
How many skin cells are lost in a day?
That means we lose around 50 million cells every day. This is a lot of skin cells to replace, making cell division in skin cells is so important. Other cells, like nerve and brain cells, divide much less often.
Why is it important for skin cells to divide?
It is important for cells to divide so you can grow and so your cuts heal. It is also important for cells to stop dividing at the right time. If a cell can not stop dividing when it is supposed to stop, this can lead to a disease called cancer. Some cells, like skin cells, are constantly dividing.
What are the two types of cell division?
Learn more. There are two types of cell division: mitosis and meiosis . Most of the time when people refer to “cell division,” they mean mitosis, the process of making new body cells. Meiosis is the type of cell division that creates egg and sperm cells. Mitosis is a fundamental process for life.
What is the process of mitosis?
During mitosis, a cell duplicates all of its contents, including its chromosomes, and splits to form two identical daughter cells. Because this process is so critical, the steps of mitosis are carefully controlled by certain genes.
What is the process of genetic variation in meiosis?
Meiosis also allows genetic variation through a process of gene shuffling while the cells are dividing. Mitosis and meiosis, the two types of cell division. Credit: U.S. National Library of Medicine.
What happens when a B cell is activated?
B cell activation. When naïve or memory B cells are activated by antigen (and helper T cells—not shown), they proliferate and differentiate into effector cells. The effector cells produce and secrete antibodies with a unique antigen-binding (more...)
What type of antibody does a B cell produce?
Such cells make and secrete large amounts of soluble (rather than membrane-bound) antibody, which has the same unique antigen-binding site as the cell-surface antibody that served earlier as the antigen receptor(Figure 24-17). Effector B cells can begin secreting antibody while they are still small lymphocytes, but the end stage of their maturation pathway is a large plasma cell(see Figure 24-7B), which continuously secretes antibodies at the astonishing rate of about 2000 molecules per second. Plasma cells seem to have committed so much of their protein-synthesizing machinery to making antibody that they are incapable of further growth and division. Although many die after several days, some survive in the bone marrow for months or years and continue to secrete antibodies into the blood.
What are the two sites of antibody binding?
The simplest antibodies are Y-shaped molecules with two identical antigen-binding sites, one at the tip of each arm of the Y (Figure 24-18). Because of their two antigen-binding sites, they are described as bivalent. As long as an antigen has three or more antigenic determinants, bivalent antibody molecules can cross-link it into a large lattice (Figure 24-19). This lattice can be rapidly phagocytosed and degraded by macrophages. The efficiency of antigen binding and cross-linking is greatly increased by a flexible hinge regionin most antibodies, which allows the distance between the two antigen-binding sites to vary (Figure 24-20).
How many classes of antibodies do mammals make?
Mammals make five classes of antibodies, each of which mediates a characteristic biological response following antigen binding. In this section, we discuss the structure and function of antibodies and how they interact with antigen. B Cells Make Antibodies as Both Cell-Surface Receptors and Secreted Molecules.
Why do vertebrates die?
Vertebrates inevitably die of infection if they are unable to make antibodies. Antibodies defend us against infection by binding to viruses and microbial toxins, thereby inactivating them (see Figure 24-2).
Where are antibodies made in a B cell?
The first antibodies made by a newly formed B cell are not secreted. Instead, they are inserted into the plasma membrane, where they serve as receptors for antigen. Each B cell has approximately 105such receptors in its plasma membrane.
Which cell type is phagocytosed by an IgG-antibody-coated bacterium?
Antibody-activated phagocytosis. (A) An IgG-antibody-coated bacterium is efficiently phagocytosed by a macrophage or neutrophil, which has cell-surface receptors that bind the tail (Fc) region of IgG molecules. The binding of the antibody-coated bacterium (more...)
How do B cells activate?
B cell activation. B cells are activated when their B cell receptor (BCR) binds to either soluble or membrane bound antigen. This activates the BCR to form microclusters and trigger downstream signalling cascades. The microcluster eventually undergoes a contraction phase and forms an immunological synapse, this allows for a stable interaction ...
What happens to B cells after activation?
Figure 3: B cell differentiation after activation. When a mature B cell encounters antigen that binds to its B cell receptor it becomes activated. It then proliferates and becomes a blasting B cell. These B cells form germinal centres. The germinal centre B cells undergo somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. Plasma cells and memory B cells with a high-affinity for the original antigen stimuli are produced. These cells are long lived and plasma cells may secrete antibody for weeks after the initial infection.
What happens to B cells in germinal cells?
B cells can migrate between the light zone and dark zone of the germinal centre to undergo somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. Eventually they may leave the GC as high-affinity memory cells (M) or plasma cells (P).
What happens when B cells migrate to the T-B border?
Figure 2: The migration of B cells in an immune response. When B cells (B) first encounter antigen (★) they migrate to the T-B border to receive survival signals from T cells (T). If they receive survival signals they will begin to proliferate and either become plasmablasts (Bl) or form a germinal centre (Blue). B cells can migrate between the light zone and dark zone of the germinal centre to undergo somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. Eventually they may leave the GC as high-affinity memory cells (M) or plasma cells (P).
Why do B cells migrate between germinal zones?
The B cells may migrate between both zones to undergo several rounds of somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination. The ultimate goal of the germinal centre is to produce B cells with a BCR which has high affinity for the initial antigen. Figure 2: The migration of B cells in an immune response.
What are the cytokines secreted by T cells?
Cytokines secreted by T cells encourage proliferation and isotype switching and maintain germinal centre size and longevity. Without these signals the germinal centre response will quickly collapse.
What ligand is found on T helper cells?
In this situation activated B cells move to the border of the T cell zone to interact with T cells (Figure 2). CD40 ligand is found on these T helper cells and interacts with CD40 on the B cells to form a stable attraction. Cytokines secreted by T cells encourage proliferation and isotype switching and maintain germinal centre size and longevity. Without these signals the germinal centre response will quickly collapse.

Overview
B cells, also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system. B cells produce antibody molecules which may be either secreted or inserted into the plasma membrane where they serve as a part of B-cell receptors. When a naïve or memory B cell is activated by an antige…
Development
B cells develop from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that originate from bone marrow. HSCs first differentiate into multipotent progenitor (MPP) cells, then common lymphoid progenitor (CLP) cells. From here, their development into B cells occurs in several stages (shown in image to the right), each marked by various gene expression patterns and immunoglobulin H chain and L chain gene l…
Activation
B cell activation occurs in the secondary lymphoid organs (SLOs), such as the spleen and lymph nodes. After B cells mature in the bone marrow, they migrate through the blood to SLOs, which receive a constant supply of antigen through circulating lymph. At the SLO, B cell activation begins when the B cell binds to an antigen via its BCR. Although the events taking place immediately after activat…
B cell types
Plasmablast A short-lived, proliferating antibody-secreting cell arising from B cell differentiation. Plasmablasts are generated early in an infection and their antibodies tend to have a weaker affinity towards their target antigen compared to plasma cell. Plasmablasts can result from T cell-independent activation of B cells or the extrafollicular response from T cell-dependent activation of B cells…
B cell-related pathology
Autoimmune disease can result from abnormal B cell recognition of self-antigens followed by the production of autoantibodies. Autoimmune diseases where disease activity is correlated with B cell activity include scleroderma, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes, post-infectious IBS, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Malignant transformation of B cells and their precursors can cause a host of cancers, including c…
Epigenetics
A study that investigated the methylome of B cells along their differentiation cycle, using whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS), showed that there is a hypomethylation from the earliest stages to the most differentiated stages. The largest methylation difference is between the stages of germinal center B cells and memory B cells. Furthermore, this study showed that there is a similarity between B cell tumors and long-lived B cells in their DNA methylation signatures.
See also
• A20 cells