<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<term>
  <id>13014</id>
  <title>clonal expansion</title>
  <longtitle>IUPAC Gold Book - clonal expansion</longtitle>
  <doi>10.1351/goldbook.13014</doi>
  <code>13014</code>
  <status>current</status>
  <definitions>
    <item>
      <id>1</id>
      <text>Proliferation of B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes activated by clonal selection in order to produce a clone of identical cells.</text>
      <notes>
        <item>Clonal expansion enables the body to have sufficient numbers of antigen-specific lymphocytes to mount an effective immune response.</item>
      </notes>
      <links>
        <item>
          <term>B lymphocytes</term>
          <url>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12937</url>
        </item>
        <item>
          <term>T lymphocytes</term>
          <url>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13724</url>
        </item>
        <item>
          <term>clonal selection</term>
          <url>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13016</url>
        </item>
        <item>
          <term>lymphocytes</term>
          <url>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13399</url>
        </item>
      </links>
      <sources>
        <item>PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1145 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)</item>
      </sources>
    </item>
  </definitions>
  <altoutputs>
    <html>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13014/html</html>
    <json>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13014/json</json>
    <plain>https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13014/plain</plain>
  </altoutputs>
  <citation>Citation: 'clonal expansion' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13014</citation>
  <license>The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.</license>
  <collection>If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .</collection>
  <disclaimer>The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.</disclaimer>
  <accessed>2026-06-30T08:32:09+00:00</accessed>
</term>
