03 November 2012
Brave Blood
Like a fast-flowing river, the bloodstream carries white blood cells – the first responders of our immune system, also called leucocytes – to areas of infection in the body. This high-speed journey is fraught with danger. To prevent the currents from washing the leucocytes away once they arrive, they do what any salty sea dog would – drop their anchors. The leucocytes pictured here (the largest of which is 2,000 times smaller than a Fisherman’s Friend) were scattered over a man-made surface similar to the lining of a blood vessel and then blasted with fast-flowing liquid to simulate the bloodstream. Prickly anchors developed immediately to tether the base of the cell to the vessel-like floor. Only after a dramatic voyage inside our blood vessels can the job of the leucocytes really begin, penetrating through the vessel lining on a mission to tackle a nearby infection.
Written by
- Jacob Rullo & Myron Cybulsky
- University of Toronto, Canada
- Images available under a BY-NC-SA License
- Published in Journal of Cell Biology 197(1):115-129
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