What Are Lymphocytes and How Are They Used in Research?

When people get sick or have any sign of infection or inflammation, lymphocytes comes to the rescue. Lymphocytes are a component of white blood cells which fight disease and comprise a major part of the body?s immune system. There are two types of lymphocytes. One type is referred to as B cell which fights against foreign products in the blood stream like germs or toxins.

The second type is T cell which is a major component of lymphocytes but sometimes gets confused. It then attacks the body?s own cells thinking they are foreign bodies. A type of T cell is destroyed by the HIV virus which results in a compromised immune system unable to fight off other diseases.

The lymphocyte blood level is part of a routine blood test and gives doctors important information about a person?s health. A high lymphocyte level indicates that some inflammation or infection is going on some place in the body and the immune system is trying to fight it off. A level that is too low indicates a problem with the immune system itself and there are not enough lymphocytes to fight off the disease.

Although lymphocytes are required for a healthy immune system, they may misinterpret tissue and organ transplants as unwelcome foreign bodies and reject them. There is also a category of diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, which are called autoimmune diseases. These occur when the lymphocytes misinterpret normal cells as foreign bodies and attack some organs of the body. An upside to this problem is that they sometimes recognize cancer cells as foreign bodies and attack them.

Neither autoimmune diseases nor how the lymphocytes choose certain cancers to destroy and not others are completely understood. Both are the subject of research.

Researchers of autoimmune diseases are working on ways to remove the confused, diseased lymphocytes with normal ones. They are finding more success with ?repairing? the diseased lymphocytes instead of destroying and replacing them.

Cancer researchers are trying to understand why some lymphocytes and the body?s own immune system recognizes some cancer cells as foreign bodies and destroys them yet allows others to multiply. The hope is that the body?s own immune system may be used as an anticancer therapy and recognize all malignant cells as foreign bodies and destroy them. Future studies may be able to determine how to differentiate between the cells and immunize cancer sufferers with the cancer fighting lymphocytes as an effective cancer treatment.

For more information on lymphocytes and other cells vital to the immune system, visit HemaCare.

Source: http://toddsblogs.com/healthandfitness/2012/08/15/what-are-lymphocytes-and-how-are-they-used-in-research/

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