In vivo imaging of germinal centres reveals a dynamic open structure.

Journal article

Germinal centres are specialized structures wherein B lymphocytes undergo clonal expansion, class switch recombination, antibody gene diversification and affinity maturation. Three to four antigen-specific B cells colonize a follicle to establish a germinal centre and become rapidly dividing germinal-centre centroblasts that give rise to dark zones. Centroblasts produce non-proliferating centrocytes that are thought to migrate to the light zone of the germinal centre, which is rich in antigen...

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Authors: Schwickert, T; Lindquist, R; Shakhar, G; Livshits, G; Skokos, D

• Journal: Nature
• Volume: 446
• Issue: 7131
• Pages: 83-87
• Publication date: 2007-03-01
• DOI: 10.1038/nature05573
• EISSN: 1476-4687
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English
• Keywords: Cell Adhesion; B-Lymphocytes; Germinal Center; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Cell Movement; Cell Communication; Animals; Mice