Positive Selection of Antigen‐Specific B Lymphocytes by Means of Immunomagnetic Particles

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Abstract
This paper presents a method for the isolation of highly enriched antigen-specific B lymphocytes from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) by means of an immunomagnetic procedure. The method is illustrated by the isolation of B cells positive for rheumatoid factos (RF) from patients with rheumatoid arteritis and healthy blood donors. After Epstein-Barr virus transformation of isolated cells, more than 90% of the generated immunoglobulin-secreting cells produced RF in several experiments. Compared to the low frequency of B cells positive for RF in PBMC, this represents a 103- to 104-fold enrichment of antigen-specific B cells.