B cells from aged mice do not have intrinsic defects in affinity maturation

Abstract

Affinity maturation, the progressive increase in serum antibody affinity after vaccination, is an essential process that contributes to an effective humoral response against vaccines and infections. Germinal centres (GCs) are key for affinity maturation, as they are where B cells undergo somatic hypermutation of their immunoglobulin genes in the dark zone, before going through positive selection in the light zone via interactions with T follicular helper cells and follicular dendritic cells. In aged mice, affinity maturation has been shown to be impaired, but whether B cell-intrinsic factors contribute to this defect remains unclear. In this study, we show that B cells from aged B cell receptor transgenic mice are able to become GC B cells, which are capable of receiving positive selection signals to a similar extent as B cells from young adult mice. Consistent with this, ageing also does not impact the ability of B cells to undergo somatic hypermutation and acquire affinity-enhancing mutations. Together, this shows that there are no B cell-intrinsic defects in affinity maturation with age when the B cell receptor repertoire is constant.