follicular dendritic cells, appears to be critical for generation of appropriately activated B cells of the germinal centre and for mature antibody responses to bacterial infection. Immunohistochemistry Although CR2 is present on all mature B-cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDCs), this becomes readily apparent only when immunohistochemistry is performed on frozen sections. In more conventional paraffin-embedded tissue samples, only the FDCs retain the staining pattern. As a result, CR2, more commonly called CD21 in the context of immunohistochemistry, can be used to demonstrate the FDC meshwork in lymphoid tissue. This feature can be useful in examining tissue where the normal germinal centres have been effaced by disease processes, such as HIV infection. The pattern of the FDC meshwork may also be altered in some neoplastic conditions, such as B-cell MALT lymphomas, mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma and some T cell lymphomas. Castleman's disease is typified by the presence of abnormal FDCs, and both this, and malignant FDC tumours may therefore be demonstrated using CR2/CD21 antibodies. References Further reading External links Complement system