Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

The processes that normally generate and maintain adaptive immunity and immunological memory are poorly understood, and yet of fundamental importance when infectious diseases place such a major economic and social burden on the world's health and agriculture systems. Defects in these mechanisms also underlie the many forms of human primary immunodeficiency. Identifying these mechanisms in a systematic way is therefore important if we are to develop better strategies for treating and preventing infection, inherited disease, transplant rejection and autoimmunity. In this review we describe a genome-wide screen in mice for the genes important for generating these adaptive responses, and describe two independent DOCK8 mutant mice strains identified by this screen. DOCK 8 was found to play an essential role in humoral immune responses and to be important in the proper formation of the B cell immunological synapse.

Original publication

DOI

10.3233/DMA-2010-0739

Type

Journal article

Journal

Dis Markers

Publication Date

2010

Volume

29

Pages

141 - 150

Keywords

Animals, Antibodies, B-Lymphocytes, Disease Models, Animal, Ethylnitrosourea, Genome-Wide Association Study, Germinal Center, Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors, Immunity, Humoral, Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes, Immunologic Memory, Immunological Synapses, Male, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mutation