Mechanisms behind functional avidity maturation in T cells

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    Abstract

    During an immune response antigen-primed B-cells increase their antigen responsiveness by affinity maturation mediated by somatic hypermutation of the genes encoding the antigen-specific B-cell receptor (BCR) and by selection of higher-affinity B cell clones. Unlike the BCR, the T-cell receptor (TCR) cannot undergo affinity maturation. Nevertheless, antigen-primed T cells significantly increase their antigen responsiveness compared to antigen-inexperienced (naïve) T cells in a process called functional avidity maturation. This paper covers studies that describe differences in T-cell antigen responsiveness during T-cell differentiation along with examples of the mechanisms behind functional avidity maturation in T cells.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number163453
    JournalClinical & Developmental Immunology
    Volume2012
    Number of pages8
    ISSN1740-2522
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2012

    Keywords

    • Animals
    • Cell Differentiation
    • Cellular Microenvironment
    • Cytokines
    • Humans
    • Immunologic Memory
    • Lymphocyte Activation
    • Receptor Cross-Talk
    • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
    • Signal Transduction
    • T-Lymphocyte Subsets
    • T-Lymphocytes

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