Excerpt

Secreted antibodies are a key player for exerting appropriate humoral immunity. For instance, in infectious diseases, poly-specific “natural” antibodies provide early protection, independent of T cell help. If this line of defense is crossed, T cell-dependent immune responses then generate a humoral memory provided by long-lived plasma cells secreting specific antibodies of adapted avidity and isotype. Secreted antibodies provide an efficient line of defense against re-infection and are backed up by specific memory B and T cells. In the field of humoral immunity, great discoveries including identification of a special T cell subset helping B cell activation (TFH), have been made in a last couple of years; however, important questions (such as mechanisms for affinity maturation of antibodies) still remain. [...] View Full-Text