RESOURCE COMPETITION AS A MECHANISM FOR B-CELL HOMEOSTASIS

Cellular competition for survival signals offers a cogent and appealin g mechanism for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis [Raff, M, C, ( 1992) Nature (London) 356, 397-400], We present a theoretical and expe rimental investigation of the role of competition for resources in the regulation of peripheral B cell numbers, We use formal ecological com petition theory, mathematical models of interspecific competition, and competitive repopulation experiments to show that B cells must compet e to persist in the periphery and that antigen forms a part of the res ources over which B cells compete.