What's the difference between naive and memory B cells?

Question

I understand that when naive B cells are exposed to antigens, they become memory B cells, but what is the functional difference between the two? I've looked at the quite a few article on B cells, but none of them stated the difference clearly enough for me to understand.

Answer 1

Naive B cells are just that, "naive." They have not yet been exposed to the antigen so therefore do not have the ability to produce the antibodies to fight the antigen. Once the naive B cell has been exposed to the antigen, it can reproduce the specific B cells that express the antibody that recognized the antigen. These cells will be called Memory B cells as they already have the right antibody to recognize the antigen. Furthermore, memory B cells allow for the primary immune response to be much more efficient when the antigen is shown to an organism a second time. Hope this helps!