5.4 B lymphocytes and humoral immunity

• humoral immunity involves antibodies
• when an antigen enters the blood or fluid tissue, there will be one B cell that has a complementary antibody on its surface
• the antibody attaches to the complementary antigen and enters the B cell by endocytosis and gets presented on its surface
• T helper cells bind to the processed antigen and stimulates the B cell to divide by mitosis
• as each clone produces one specific antibody, these antibodies are referred to as monoclonal antibodies
• plasma cells are a primary immune response
• memory cells are a secondary immune response
• B cell clones can turn into:

  1. plasma cells
  2. memory cells