Antibody-producing cells: B lymphocytes
The B lymphocytes are the leukocyte which depends mediated immunity antibodies with specific binding activity antigens. B lymphocytes, which constitute between 5 and 15% of all lymphocytes, give rise to plasma cells that produce antibodies.
The cells that produce the antibodies are plasma cells.
B lymphocytes are formed and differentiated in the fetal spleen, and in the red bone marrow of the adult (the "B" comes from the Latin bursa fabricii, the organ in which this type of lymphocyte develops in birds). There they acquire their ability to produce antibodies. Millions of B lymphocytes are made in the bone marrow, each of which will make a single type of specific antibody.
If an antigen appears, it binds to an antibody on the membrane of a B lymphocyte. They can only bind if there is a spatial coupling between antigen and antibody, it is a specific binding.
After recognizing the antigen, B lymphocytes are activated, dividing rapidly to form a series or clone of the same cells that produce the same type of antibody. This is the theory of clonal selection, which explains why large amounts of specific antibodies are produced when a given antigen is recognized.
Almost all activated B lymphocytes transform into large plasma cells with high antibody production. But some lymphocytes remain as memory B lymphocytes, forming an immune reserve against future exposures to that same antigen.
The interleukins, secreted by certain T lymphocytes and by macrophages, stimulate the activation of B lymphocytes.