Assessing the Survival of Human Plasma Cells Ex Vivo

One way memory B cells provide protection is by rapidly differentiating into plasma cells. Plasma cells are vital in providing long-term protection against pathogens; however, they can also be detrimental to health in the case of antibody-mediated autoimmunity. Therefore, compounds which modulate the survival of plasma cells have been of interest for therapeutic intervention. Investigation of ex vivo plasma cell survival has previously been limited by the low frequency of plasma cells in the blood. Here we describe a novel ex vivo culture system that only requires 3000–5000 cells per condition. This method permits the assessment of human plasma cell survival derived from blood and can assess the impact of small molecule inhibitors on plasma cell viability.