Germinal centers (GC) are critically important for maturation of the antibody response and generation of memory B cells, processes that form the basis for long-term protection from pathogens. GCs only occur in lymphoid tissue, such as lymph nodes, and are not present in blood. Therefore, GC B cells and GC T follicular helper (TFH) cells are not well-studied in humans under normal healthy conditions, due to the limited availability of healthy lymph node samples. We used a minimally invasive, routine clinical procedure, lymph node fine needle aspirations (LN FNAs), to obtain LN cells from healthy human subjects. This study of 73 LNs demonstrates that human LN FNAs are a safe and feasible technique for immunological research, and suggests benchmarks for human GC biology under noninflammatory conditions. The findings indicate that assessment of the GC response via LN FNAs will have application to the study of human vaccination, allergy, and autoimmune disease.

中文翻译：

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正常人淋巴结T滤泡辅助细胞和生发中心B细胞通过细针穿刺进入。

生殖中心（GC）对于抗体应答的成熟和记忆B细胞的生成至关重要，而这一过程构成了长期保护免受病原体侵害的基础。GC仅在淋巴组织（例如淋巴结）中出现，而在血液中不存在。因此，由于健康淋巴结样本的可用性有限，因此在正常健康条件下无法对人的GC B细胞和GC T滤泡辅助细胞（TFH）进行深入研究。我们使用了微创的常规临床程序，淋巴结细针穿刺术（LN FNAs），从健康的人类受试者中获得LN细胞。这项对73个LN的研究表明，人类LN FNA是一种安全，可行的免疫学技术，并为非炎症条件下的人类GC生物学提出了基准。