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International Immunology, Vol. 14, No. 12, pp. 1369-1381, December 2002
© 2002 Japanese Society for Immunology

A possible role of chemotaxis in germinal center formation

Tilo Beyer1, Michael Meyer-Hermann1 and Gerhard Soff1

1 Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany

Correspondence to: T. Beyer; E-mail: tilbey{at}theory.phy.tu-dresden.de
Transmitting editor: T. Tedder

During the germinal center (GC) reaction a characteristic morphology is developed. In the framework of a recently developed space-time model for the GC, a mechanism for the formation of dark and light zones has been proposed. There, the mechanism is based on a diffusing differentiation signal which is distinguished by follicular dendritic cells (FDC). Here, we investigate a possible influence of recently found chemoattractants on GC formation in the framework of a single cell-based stochastic and discrete three-dimensional model. This necessitates a more detailed spatial description. The model is enlarged by a detailed prescription of cell motility and it is introduced as a consistent volume concept. We consider various possible chemotactic pathways that may play a role for the development of both zones. Our results suggest that the centrocyte motility resulting from a FDC-derived chemoattractant has to exceed a lower limit to allow the separation of centroblasts and centrocytes. In contrast to light microscopy, the dark zone is ring shaped. This suggests that FDC-derived chemoattractants alone cannot explain the typical GC morphology.

Keywords: B cells, centroblasts, centrocytes, follicular dendritic cells, spatial model


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