B Cells and Antibodies Exam 1

Question 1

What cells make antibodies?

Answer 1

WBC from bone marrow

Question 2

How many kinds of B cells are there?

Answer 2

100 million

Question 3

Y shaped proteins that attach to antigens to help identify and destroy harmful non-self

Answer 3

Antibodies (immunoglobins)

Question 4

Something that causes the immune system to create antibodies specifically targeting that something

Answer 4

Antigen

Question 5

Antigen that a given B cell’s receptors recognize

Answer 5

Cognate antigen

Question 6

Part of the antigen that the antibody recognizes and attaches

Answer 6

Epitope

Question 7

Part of the antibody that recognizes and attaches to the epitope

Answer 7

Paratope

Question 8

What are two methods to create antibody diversity

Answer 8

Modular design

Junctional diversity

Question 9

Antibodies are proteins that are made in these cells

Answer 9

B cells

Question 10

In this form of antibody diversity, there are multiple copies of four gene segments that code the antibody’s heavy chain

Answer 10

Modular design

Question 11

What are the four genes found on the heavy chain?

Answer 11

V D J C

Question 12

A string of gene segments that codes for the constant region

Answer 12

Fc region

Question 13

What is the default for making B cell receptors?

Answer 13

IgM and IgD

Question 14

Additional DNA bases are added or subtracted when gene segments from modular design are added together

Answer 14

Junctional diversity

Question 15

B cells that have never encountered their cognate antigen

Answer 15

Naive or virgin B cells

Question 16

B cells that have been activated

Answer 16

Experienced B cells

Question 17

What are the two signals needed for B cells to be activated

Answer 17

Clustering of B cell receptors

Co-stimulatory signal

Question 18

When a B cell encounters its cognate antigen, what two things bind together?

Answer 18

Paratope binds to epitope

Question 19

What is the purpose of complement receptors?

Answer 19

Decrease in number of BCRs that need to be clustered to signal the nucleus

Question 20

When a B cell is stimulated by the antigen and a helper T cell

Answer 20

T cell dependent co-stimulation

Question 21

Some antigen receptors have repeating patterns and will heavily cluster the BCRs

Answer 21

T cell independent co-stimulation

Question 22

Describe the steps of T cell dependent co-stimulation

Answer 22

B cell encounter cognate antigen
The cognate antigen is endocytosed
Fragments of the cognate antigen are displayed by MHC II
T cell meets its cognate antigen

Question 23

In T cell independent co-stimulaiton, is the signal dependent on the recognition of the cognate antigen for that B cell?

Answer 23

No

Question 24

When signal is sufficient, how long do B cells divide?

Answer 24

12 hours per growth and division over the course of a week

Question 25

Most B cells are this cell type

Answer 25

Plasma cells (antibody factories)

Question 26

Some B cells become this cell type

Answer 26

Memory B cells

Question 27

BCR genes undergo mutation and selection to create greater affinity for its cognate antigen

Answer 27

Somatic hypermutation

Question 28

B cell changes the class of antibody it produces

Answer 28

Class switching

Question 29

Somatic hypermutation occurs in regions containing what gene segments?

Answer 29

V D J

Question 30

How long does a plasma cell live?

Answer 30

Only a few days | Works hard then dies

Question 31

How long do memory B cells last?

Answer 31

Greater than 50 years

Question 32

The class of antibody is determined by what region of the heavy chain?

Answer 32

Fc or constant region

Question 33

When a naive B cell is first activated, it makes mainly what type of antibodies?

Answer 33

IgM

Question 34

This antibody class can pass from mother's blood to fetus and is the longest lived antibody

Answer 34

IgG

Question 35

Most abundant antibody class in the human body

Answer 35

IgA

Question 36

What is the structure of IgA?

Answer 36

Like two IgGs clipped together

Question 37

This antibody class equals the size of 5 IgGs

Answer 37

IgM

Question 38

This antibody class activates the complement system

Answer 38

IgM