Persistence of Virus-Specific Antibody after Depletion of Memory B Cells
William A. Langley, Andreas Wieland, Hasan Ahmed, Mohammed Ata Ur Rasheed, Carl W. Davis, Jaturong Sewatanon, Scott N. Mueller, Mark J. Shlomchik, Veronika I. Zarnitsyna, Rustom Antia, Rafi Ahmed
Abstract
Following vaccination or primary virus infection, virus-specific antibodies provide the first line of defense against reinfection. Plasma cells residing in the bone marrow constitutively secrete antibodies, are long-lived, and can thus maintain serum antibody levels over extended periods of time in the absence of antigen. Our data, in the murine model system, show that virus-specific plasma cells are intrinsically long-lived but that some reseeding by memory B cells might occur. Our findings demonstrate that, due to the longevity of plasma cells, virus-specific antibody levels remain relatively stable in the absence of memory B cells and have implications for vaccination.