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Plasma cell
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The plasma cell is a B lymphocyte that has already differentiated, meaning it changed its shape and its job to devote itself to one thing: making immunoglobulins, which is the technical name for antibodies. That is why it is mainly responsible for humoral immunity, the part of your defenses that works through antibodies circulating in the blood rather than through cells attacking up close.
It shows up when an antigen arrives, and an antigen is anything the immune system recognizes as foreign. That stimulus activates B lymphocytes in the bone marrow, the spleen and the lymph nodes, and that is where the plasma cell comes from. Its output is striking: a single one is estimated to release hundreds or thousands of antibodies per second.
Under the microscope, its job shows. Its nucleus does not sit in the center but is pushed off to one side, and the chromatin, which is the genetic material, clumps against the nuclear membrane in a pattern that looks like a cartwheel with its spokes. And the cytoplasm, the inside of the cell, is packed with rough endoplasmic reticulum, the machinery that makes proteins, arranged in parallel rows.
In brief
The plasma cell is a differentiated B lymphocyte that secretes immunoglobulins, that is, antibodies, and is mainly responsible for humoral immunity.
It arises after antigen stimulation, from activated B lymphocytes in bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes, and a single cell is estimated to secrete hundreds or thousands of antibodies per second.
Its shape gives away its job: an eccentric nucleus whose chromatin, clumped against the nuclear membrane, forms a cartwheel pattern, and cytoplasm with rough endoplasmic reticulum in parallel rows.
A cartwheel with its spokes.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHistology, Plasma Cells, StatPearlsPublished
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