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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Nov 3.
Published in final edited form as: Int Rev Immunol. 2012 Aug;31(4):10.3109/08830185.2012.703272. doi: 10.3109/08830185.2012.703272

Figure 2. A many-trimer form of CD40L is needed to induce CD40 clustering and cell activation.

Figure 2

Haswell et al. showed that a single trimer of soluble CD40L is unable to stimulate B cells to proliferate (35). However, molecules engineered to express 2 (36) or 4 (35) CD40L trimers are highly stimulatory for B cells, reflecting their ability to cluster CD40 on responding cells. Note that unlike agonistic anti-CD40 antibody (Figure 1), many-trimer forms of soluble CD40L can stimulate cells without requiring an interaction with a second receptor on an adjacent cell type.