The bone marrow is not only a primary lymphoid organ: The critical role for T lymphocyte migration and housing of long-term memory plasma cells

In immunology and anatomy textbooks the bone marrow is described as a typical primary lymphoid organ producing lymphoid cells independent of antigens. The hematopoietic bone marrow is largely age-dependent organ with great anatomical and functional differences among various species. There are estimates that about 12% of all lymphoid cells in the human body are found in the bone marrow at any given time (2% in the peripheral blood). Enormous numbers of T lymphocytes migrate to the bone marrow and partly return later to the blood. Many of these lymphocytes are memory CD4(+) and CD8(+) Tcells. A few days after immunization a wave of plasma cells and their precursors migrate to the bone marrow where they lose their migratory response to CXCL-12 and CXCL9. There is a relative enrichment of CD19(+) B cells in the bone marrow outnumbering those in the blood and secondary lymphoid organs. This is not due to local production. The proliferation and migration kinetics of these lymphoid cells in the bone marrow have to be studied in more detail as this is of major clinical relevance.