Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: The B cell receptor and beyond

In this dissertation we investigated the role of B cell receptor (BCR) signaling in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells of different groups of CLL patients. We investigated to what extent BCR signaling differs from normal B cells and what differences there are between CLL cells of different patients after stimulation of the BCR.
Furthermore, in 3 families with multiple CLL patients examined the characteristics of the BCR and also looked at genetic abnormalities in these families. Because CLL is a disease that mainly affects the elderly, they have finally, we also studied the B cell differentiation and BCR repertoire upon aging.