By sampling B cells from multiple hard-to-study organs within the same individual, Ivana Cvijovic and I generated the first systems-level perspective of the human antibody system. Most immune-monitoring efforts focus on the peripheral blood because it is non-invasive. Our study compares as many as 5 organs per donor, which allows systematic insights into the dynamics of long-term antibody memory in Humans and informs non-invasive immune monitoring.
Key findings:
- Long-term antibody memory emerges uniformly throughout the immune response
- Proliferative antibody-secreting cells uniquely circulate among multiple tissues
- Immune-monitoring via the peripheral blood has key sampling biases and limitations