Plasma cell markers

Plasma cells are antibody-secreting terminally differentiated non-dividing B cells, arising from dividing plasmablasts at various times and various locations during an immune response. The first-line defence against pathogens generates activated B cells, developing through plasmablasts into short-lived plasma cells, producing high amount of low affinity antibodies. Some of activated B cells can enter germinal centers of the lymph nodes and there to undergo clonal selection associated with somatic hypermutation and class switch recombination, thus those B cells that subsequently leave germinal centers develop into plasmablasts and plasma cells that secrete high affinity antibodies, or they become quiescent memory B cells, homing into various lymphoid tissues. A small portion of plasma cells manage to reach particular niches in the bone marrow and lymphoid tissues and become long-lived, able to produce high-affinity antibodies for years or even decades. After next stimulation by the antigen, rapid and massive clonal expansion of memory B cells generates to tenfold more plasma cells than a primary response does.

 
 

Fig. 1: Schematic drawing on origin of three plasma cell types.
 
 
Antibody secreting B cells (plasmablasts and plasma cells) express on their surface CD138 (syndecan 1) and CD319. Unlike plasmablasts, plasma cells lose expression of HLA-DR and CD19, and are Ki-67^-. Another marker, CD27, helps to discriminate between naive B cells (CD27^-), memory B cells (CD27⁺), and plasma cells (CD27++).
 
 
 
Fig. 2: Analysis of human blood leukocytes isolated from buffy coats (B cell gate) using mouse monoclonal anti-human CD319 FITC (clone 162) and mouse monoclonal anti-human CD27 Pacific Blue­™ (clone LT27). Plasma cells are CD319⁺⁺CD27⁺⁺.
 
 
Selected antibodies:
 

 
 
 
Further reading:
 
Calame KL: Plasma cells: Finding new light at the end of B cell development. Nat Immunol. 2001 2(12) 1103-1107.
 
Mei HE et al.: Blood-borne human plasma cells in steady state are derived from mucosal immune responses. Blood 2009 113(11) 2461-2469.
 
Auner HW et al.: The life span of short-lived plasma cells is partly determined by a block on activation of apoptotic caspases acting in combination with endoplasmic reticulum stress. Blood 2010 116(18) 3445-3455.
 
Liew PX: The longevity of the humoral immune response: Survival of long-lived plasma cells. Akademeia 2012 2(1) ea0116.
 
Halliley JL et al.: Long-lived plasma cells are contained within the CD19^-CD38^hiCD138⁺ subset in human bone marrow. Immunity 2015 43(1) 132-145.
 
Tejero EM: Multiscale modeling of germinal center recapitulates the temporal transition from memory B cells to plasma cells differentiation as regulated by antigen affinity-based Tfh cell help. Front Immunol. 2021 11 620716.
 
Tellier J and Nutt SL: The secret to longevity, plasma cell style. Nat Immunol. 2022 23 1507-1508.
 
Koike T et al.: Progressive differentiation toward the long-lived plasma cell compartment in the bone marrow. J Exp Med. 2023 220(2) e20221717.