Marginal zone B-cell

Marginal zone B cells are noncirculating mature B cells that segregate anatomically into the marginal zone (MZ) of the spleen. This region contains multiple subtypes of macrophages, dendritic cells, and the MZ B cells; it is not fully formed until 2 to 3 weeks after birth in rodents and 1 to 2 years in humans. The MZ B cells within this region typically express high levels of sIgM, CD21, CD1, CD9 with low to negligible levels of sIgD, CD23, CD5, and CD11b that help to distinguish them phenotypically from follicular (FO) B cells and B1 B cells. In humans the splenic marginal zone B cells have evidence of somatic hypermutation in their immunoglobulin genes, indicating that they have been generated through a germinal centre reaction to become memory cells.