Two distinct durable human class-switched memory B cell populations are induced by vaccination and infection.

Cell reports
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Memory lymphocytes are durable cells that persist in the absence of antigen, but few human B cell subsets have been characterized in terms of durability. The relative durability of eight non-overlapping human B cell sub-populations covering 100% of all human class-switched B cells was interrogated. Only two long-lived B cell populations persisted in the relative absence of antigen. In addition to canonical germinal center-derived switched-memory B cells with an IgDCD27CXCR5 phenotype, a second, non-canonical, but distinct memory population of IgDCD27CXCR5 DN1 B cells was also durable, exhibited a unique TP63-linked transcriptional and anti-apoptotic signature, had low levels of somatic hypermutation, but was more clonally expanded than canonical switched-memory B cells. DN1 B cells likely evolved to preserve immunological breadth and may represent the human counterparts of rodent extrafollicular memory B cells that, unlike canonical memory B cells, can enter germinal centers and facilitate B cell and antibody evolution.

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
Cell reports
Volume
44
Issue
4
Pages
115472
Date Published
04/2025
ISSN
2211-1247
DOI
10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115472
PubMed ID
40173042
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