• Question: what is a white cell for ??

    Asked by jess down to Bex, Sam, RobB, Matt on 12 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Sam Briggs

      Sam Briggs answered on 12 Jun 2016:

      Hi Jess Down,

      As far as I understand it, white cells play a crucial role in fighting diseases. If you imagine a lock and key and how they fit together, then you could imagine that a disease is a key and the white cell is the lock, when the disease fits into the white cell, the cell doesn’t let go and can then attack the disease. Imagine you turn the key in the lock but you don’t turn it all the way and you keep pulling – can’t get it out can you? Well I think it’s sort of like that!

      Hope that helps?

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Jess,

      There are lots of different types of white blood cells, and they all have different roles in order to protect the body from attack from bacteria, fungi and viruses.

      Some white cells literally ‘eat’ bacteria like Pac-man, other white cells release chemicals that kill the bacteria, and other types of white cell ‘remember’ bacteria and fungi that you have been attacked by before (which is how vaccinations work, you are given a harmless form of a bacteria to ‘teach’ these white blood cells how to respond if you catch the bacteria for real).

      Long story short, the white blood cells protect your body from disease, and are an important part of your immune system!

Comments

  • Photo: Kylie

    Kylie commented on :

    Hi Jess,
    White cells are the fighters of your immune system. They are the ones that wonder around in your blood and organs, and fight off any invading organism, like bacteria, viruses, worms, parasites, even splinters and other things you might get stuck under your skin!
    They fight things by either eating them, breaking them down and destroying them, or by releasing enzymes and other proteins onto them, which kill the organism. If you had no white cells, you wouldn’t live very long at all.