Regulation of B-cell memory formation by metabolic programs

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15295
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Immunology
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Science
• Principal Investigator: Kitamura Daisuke 東京理科大学, 研究推進機構生命医科学研究所, 教授 (70204914)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HANIUDA Kei 東京理科大学, 研究推進機構生命医科学研究所, 助教 (40734918)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 胚中心 / メモリーB細胞 / ミトコンドリア代謝 / 解糖系 / BCL6

Outline of Final Research Achievements

During immune responses, antigen-responding B cells are activated and form germinal centers (GC) in the lymphoid organs. The GC B cells undergo somatic hypermutation in their immunoglobulin genes encoding B-cell receptors (BCR), and diversify the BCR affinity to antigen. High affinity B cells are then selected in the GC through T-cell help and finally differentiate into memory B cells. Memory B cells have abilities to survive for a long time and to rapidly respond to antigen to proliferate and differentiate into plasma cells. In this study, we elucidated mechanisms for how GC B cells maintain proliferation and how memory B cells live long and respond rapidly in terms of mitochondrial and glycolysis metabolisms, utilizing our original methodology, the induced GC B (iGB) cell culture system.

Free Research Field

免疫学