Affinity Maturation

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how affinity maturation is a response to an antibody that occurs in vivo and how it can be defined as the gradual increase of antibody affinity for the immunizing antigen with time. It looks at how it is associated with an enhanced secondary (anamnestic) response, somatic hypermutation, isotype switching and memory development.

From the Paper:

"Somatic hypermutation leads to mutations in the rearranged V-D-J sequences of antibodies. The antibodies generated during the primary response use the germline V regions, but in secondary responses all the generated antibodies contain a higher number of V-D-J region mutations. Random changes are introduced into the heavy and light chain genes and may lead to an increase in affinity of the antibody to the antigen. These higher affinity antibodies are then selected to enter the memory cell pool. The somatic mutations occur within the germinal centre in close proximity to the FDC network. If the variants have a high affinity for the antigen they are selected to become either plasma cells or memory B cells [4]."

More papers on Affinity Maturation:

• Book Review # 112263 : "The Maturation of George Willard"
• Comparison Essay # 60404 : "Maturation in 20th Century American Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 60398 : "Maturation in "Death of a Salesman"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: