B cells regulate somatic hypermutation rate to preserve high-affinity clones.

Immunol Cell Biol

Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.

Published: May 2025


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Article Abstract

In this Research Highlight, we discuss two recently published studies that show that germinal center B cells undergoing multiple rounds of cell division strongly suppress their rate of somatic hypermutation. These studies provide an explanation for how high-affinity germinal center B cells avoid deleterious mutations that could impair antibody affinity maturation.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imcb.70022DOI Listing

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