HISTOLOGY AND HISTOPATHOLOGY

Cellular and Molecular Biology

Review

Antigen receptor signaling competence and the determination of B cell fate in B-lymphopoiesis

Z. Keren1 and D. Melamed2

1Department of Immunology, Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and 2Rappaport Family Institute for Research in the Medical Sciences, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Offprint requests to: Dr. Doron Melamed, Technion Faculty of Medicine, Department of Immunology, Haifa 31096, Israel. Fax: 972-4-829-5245. e-mail: melamedd@tx.technion.ac.il


Summary. Recent studies suggest that developmental check-points in B-lymphopoiesis are set in order to test the B cell receptor signaling competence. In these check-points ligand-independent and ligand-dependent receptor signals confer B-lymphopoiesis with positive and negative selection events. As a consequence, B-lymphocytes are forced to make crucial fate decisions to determine developmental progression, survival or apoptosis. In here we review recent progress in unraveling molecular and cellular mechanisms for the role of B cell receptor signaling competence in determination of the B cell fate. Histol Histopathol 20 187-196 (2005)

Key words: B cell development, Immunoglobulin gene rearrangement, Antigen receptor signaling, Positive selection, Negative selection, Receptor editing

DOI: 10.14670/HH-20.187