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Cancer
Published in Sally Robinson, Priorities for Health Promotion and Public Health, 2021
Plasma cells are a type of white blood cells made in the bone marrow. They produce antibodies (immunoglobulins) which help the body to fight infections. Myeloma, or multiple myelomas, starts with abnormal plasma cells
Other Common Peripheral Neuropathies
Published in Maher Kurdi, Neuromuscular Pathology Made Easy, 2021
Amyloid neuropathy is defined as widespread amyloidosis that affects multiple nerves. It could be familial such as familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) or non-familial (primary or secondary subtypes). FAP is associated with apolipoprotein Ig-light chain. It usually occurs as an isolated neuropathy. Primary amyloidosis occurs in 50% of cases and is associated with paraprotein deposition and underlying plasma cell diseases such as multiple myeloma. The clinical diagnosis is always established before the biopsy. Patients may present with painful symmetrical distal sensorimotor neuropathy associated with muscle weakness. Findings of monoclonal free-light chain or plasma cells in bone marrow biopsy and urinary test are suggestive for primary amyloidosis. Secondary amyloidosis is the rarest causative variant of amyloid neuropathy because it is not always present with peripheral neuropathy. Secondary amyloidosis is commonly associated with systemic chronic inflammatory diseases.
The immune and lymphatic systems, infection and sepsis
Published in Peate Ian, Dutton Helen, Acute Nursing Care, 2020
Michelle Treacy, Caroline Smales, Helen Dutton
B cells or B lymphocytes are responsible for humoral or antibody-mediated immunity and form part of the adaptive immune response. There are two types of B cell: Plasma cells, which produce antibodies; the primary response.Memory B cells, stored in lymph nodes, which remember pathogens, allowing a much faster response to a second or subsequent exposure to the pathogen; the secondary response (see Figure 12.7) (Colbert et al. 2012).
Identification of AL proteins from 10 λ-AL amyloidosis patients by mass spectrometry extracted from abdominal fat and heart tissue
Published in Amyloid, 2023
Julian Baur, Natalie Berghaus, Sarah Schreiner, Ute Hegenbart, Stefan O. Schönland, Sebastian Wiese, Stefanie Huhn, Christian Haupt
The formation and deposition of fibrils derived from immunoglobulin light chains (LC) is a hallmark of AL amyloidosis [1]. It is the most common form of systemic amyloidosis in industrialised countries and usually results from an underlying plasma cell dyscrasia in which malignant plasma cells overproduce a monoclonal LC [2]. The annual incidence is approximately 10 new patients per 1 million population in the Western world [2]. The clinical and pathological disease manifestations are diverse and AL amyloid deposits can be found in different tissues and organs, but frequently occur in the heart and kidneys [2]. Many patients present with non-specific symptoms, leading to late diagnosis of the disease. For example, once symptoms of heart failure appear, the prognosis is poor and the median survival rate is < 7 months in patients with advanced cardiac involvement [3].
Are inhaled mRNA vaccines safe and effective? A review of preclinical studies
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 2022
Evalyne M Jansen, Henderik W Frijlink, Wouter LJ Hinrichs, Mitchel JR Ruigrok
Once APCs, in particular, dendritic cells, have finished processing antigens and are expressing peptide fragments on their surface via MHC proteins, they migrate toward the draining lymph nodes via the afferent lymph vessels [3]. In the lymph nodes, APCs interact with naive lymphocytes that bear receptors capable of recognizing specific peptide fragment, a process called clonal selection. Only a small fraction of these lymphocytes have receptors highly specific for the antigen. These cells then proliferate and differentiate, resulting in the production of effector cells. This step is called clonal expansion [3]. This process gives rise to CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, which are able to kill infected cells, and CD4+ T helper cells, which help B cells to become antibody-producing plasma cells [78]. This represents the cellular component of the adaptive immune response [78]. The humoral component involves the production of virus-neutralizing antibodies by plasma cells. Selected lymphocytes are also transported to ‘infected’ tissue via efferent lymph nodes and blood. Some of the lymphocytes persist in the body, providing long-term immunological memory of pathogens or parts of a pathogen [3,61]. The length of protection varies; in case of SARS-CoV-2, it may be fairly short-lived (<6 months) especially when new VoCs emerge [7,12,79].
B cells and upper airway disease: allergic rhinitis and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps evaluated
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, 2021
Harsha H Kariyawasam, Louisa K James
B-cell memory is provided by both memory B (CD19+) cells and long-lived plasma cells (CD138+). Plasma cells are terminally differentiated and function solely to secrete very high quantities of antibody. Whereas plasma cells that originate early on in the B-cell response, prior to germinal center formation, are relatively short-lived (3–5 days), plasma cells that emerge following the germinal center response are remarkably long-lived. These long-lived plasma cells reside in specialized niches such as the bone marrow, spleen and gut, supported by cytokines including IL-6 and APRIL produced by stromal cells [45], where they may survive for up to the lifetime of the host and continually secrete antibody at a rate of over 108 antibody molecules per hour [49]. Memory B cells represent a heterogeneous subset of B cells but are essentially characterized as long-lived quiescent B cells capable of being reactivated by secondary antigen exposure. When exposed to antigen, memory B cells can either form new germinal center responses or can rapidly differentiate to plasma cells to produce affinity-matured antibody. These fate choices are determined in part by whether the memory B cell had undergone antibody class switching with unswitched memory B cells more likely to form new germinal center responses whereas switched memory B cells are more likely to differentiate into plasma cells [50]. Memory B cells can recirculate through SLOs but can also reside within tissues, such as the airway where they play an important role in barrier surveillance [51].