Molecular Analysis of antigen-specific B cell responses. Mus musculus

In order to better understand the factors that regulate B cell differentiation upon exposure to antigen, we compares global gene expression profiles from naive B cells with antigen-specific plasma, germinal center, and memory B cells after immunization with the T-dependent antigen, NP-CGG. The memory B cell-enriched transcripts were then compared with memory T cell-enriched and hematopoietic stem cell-enriched transcripts in order to generate a transcriptional profile of self-renewal within the hematopoietic system. Keywords: Cell Type Comparison Overall design: Naive B cells were FACS sorted from unimmunized mice, while plasma, germinal center, and memory B cells were sorted from NP-CGG-immunized mice at 1, 2, or 10 weeks after immunization, respectively, using a combination of cell surface markers. RNA was extracted, amplified, and hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays.