• Question: Is there some place in the body who says white cells you need to go to that place and attack?

    Asked by Pipu2005 to Sian, Max, Lizzie, Francis, Ben on 6 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      SWEET question. How do white blood cells actually know where to go?

      Some white cells are continually patrolling the body looking for signs of infection. If they discover anything, they’ll release a signal which attracts loads of other white blood cells to come and help.

    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      It depends on the type of white blood cell, but as Max said the general idea is that the immune cells in the organ that has a problem (an infection, a tumor…) call for help, either by sending signals into the blood, or by sending some cells (for example dendritic cells) into the lymph nodes, where you have a reservoir of T cells, to fetch the right type of T cell to attack the problem.

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