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Mathematical Medicine and Biology Advance Access originally published online on May 17, 2006
Mathematical Medicine and Biology 2006 23(3):255-277; doi:10.1093/imammb/dql012
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© The author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved.

An analysis of B cell selection mechanisms in germinal centers

Michael E. Meyer-Hermann**,1, Philip K. Maini2 and Dagmar Iber2

1 Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Max von Laue Strasse 1, 60438 Frankfurt/Main, Germany and Centre for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Institute, Oxford, UK, 2 Centre for Mathematical Biology, Mathematical Institute, Oxford, UK

** Email: m.meyer-hermann{at}fias.uni-frankfurt.de

Affinity maturation of antibodies during immune responses is achieved by multiple rounds of somatic hypermutation and subsequent preferential selection of those B cells that express B cell receptors with improved binding characteristics for the antigen. The mechanism underlying B cell selection has not yet been defined. By employing an agent-based model, we show that for physiologically reasonable parameter values affinity maturation can be driven by competition for neither binding sites nor antigen—even in the presence of competing secreted antibodies. Within the tested mechanisms, only clonal competition for T cell help or a refractory time for the interaction of centrocytes with follicular dendritic cells is found to enable affinity maturation while generating the experimentally observed germinal centre characteristics and tolerating large variations in the initial antigen density.

Keywords: germinal centre; lymphocytes; B cell selection

Received on 6 February 2006. revised on 6 April 2006.


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