Misunderstood – The Role of Lymphocytes in Immunity
The misunderstood concept that often comes up in my Anatomy and Physiology, Pathophysiology and Health and Safety classes, is that of the lymphocytes role in the immune system. B lymphocytes are responsible for humoral immunity – that is antibody production, as well as memory for future production of antibodies. They also help to communicate with other aspects of the immune system to trigger an immune response. T lymphocytes are more involved in cell mediated immunity and work at the cellular level to destroy invaded cells, as well as also have memory cells.
The analogies I use attempt to relate the effector B and T cells “workers” who perform the action right away, and then the memory cells B and T cells to the army reserves, trained and read to respond when there is a future attack. The cytokines, which allow activation and communication between cells are described as the “chemical alarm bells”, and antigen presenting cells as the “dogs” who “eat up” invaders and present pieces of it to warn the immune system of what has been found.
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