Immunology Basics - Immunological Computation: Theory and Applications - page 17

Plasma cell

Memory cell

Helper T cell

Light zone

Selected

Centrocyte
With processed antigen
attempts to make-specific
interaction with T cell

Failed selection

Newly formed
centrocyte
attempts to bind
antigen on FDC

Death by apoptosis

FDC

Dark zone

Centroblasts
Mutate Ig V region genes and
proliferate to produce centrocytes

Figure 1.12 Different compartments of a GC such as light zone (selection
chamber) and dark zone (for centroblasts).

seen to occur in the area of the light zone rich in follicular dendritic cells (Abbas
and Lichtman, 2004; Hollowood and Goodlad, 1998). h e exchange signals that
induce further proliferation of the participating T and B cells, and diff erentiation
of the latter results in producing either memory B cells or plasma cells (Hames and
Glover, 1996; Harvard Medical School, 2005; Liu et al., 1996).
From an information-processing point of view, GCs can be viewed as produc-
tion factories where highly specialized immune cells and molecules are evolved
through an elegant recruitment process.

1.3.5 Apoptosis and Lysis

Apoptosis refers to programed cell death (cell suicide), the body's normal method of
disposing damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells. Lysis refers to the death of a cell
by bursting, often by viral or osmotic mechanisms that compromise the integrity
of the cellular membrane.