Question: how dose you white blood cells remember if you are ill???

Angela Stokes answered on 16 Nov 2014:

Hi chim123

The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body.

White blood cells, also called leukocytes, are part of this defense system. There are two basic types of these germ-fighting cells:
a) phagocytes – which chew up invading germs
b) lymphocytes – which allow the body to remember and recognize previous invaders

Leukocytes are found in lots of places, including your spleen, an organ that filters blood and helps fight infections. Leukocytes also can be found in bone marrow, which is a thick, spongy jelly inside your bones.

Your lymphatic system is home to these germ-fighting cells and in various locations in your body, you have lymph nodes, and they contain clusters of immune system cells. Normally, lymph nodes are small and round and you don’t notice them. But when they’re swollen, it means your immune system is at work.

Lymph nodes work like filters to remove germs that could make you sick. Lymph nodes, and the tiny channels that connect them to each other, contain lymph, a clear fluid with leukocytes (white blood cells) in it.

Now, pathogens contain certain chemicals that are foreign to the body and are called antigens. Each lymphocyte carries a specific type of antibody – a protein that has a chemical ‘fit’ to a certain antigen. When a lymphocyte with the appropriate antibody meets the antigen, the lymphocyte reproduces quickly, and makes many copies of the antibody that neutralises the pathogen. When that pathogen appears again, the relevant lymphocytes start increasing again, so it appears that the lymphocytes have remembered a specific illness.