Lymphocyte, Functions Diseases, A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Lymphocyte, Functions, Diseases, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases
A Lymphocyte is a small white blood cell that carries out the activities of the immune system
They number about one trillion.
The normal lymphocyte has a large, dark-staining nucleus with little to no eosinophilic cytoplasm.
The coarse, dense nucleus of a lymphocyte is about the size of a red blood cell (about 7 micrometers in diameter).
The lymphocytes are of 2 types:
1. Larger Lymphocytes called Natural Killer cells (NK cells)
2. Small Lymphocytes
a. B cells function mainly by secreting soluble substances called antibodies (humoral imunity)
b. T cells which are processed in the thymus and act together directly with their targets (cellular Imunity)
Life and Death of a LYmphocyte
My name is Immune Man the T-cell lymphocyte.
I was named Immune Man by my friends who think that I am able to fight any pathogen by direct contact with them.
It is true that I like to fight germs or cancer cells.
I have a partner called the B cell who has a whole arsenal of antibodies which can kill the germs or cancer cells in their body fluid. I called him Antibody Man.
B cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes, such as T cells and natural killer cells (NK cells) by the presence of a protein on the B cell's outer surface known as a B cell receptor.
This specialized receptor protein allows a B cell to bind to a specific antigen.
Another partner is called the Natural Killer cell who is bigger than me and B cell. He killed germs or cancer cells by sending cytotoxic granules to kill them. I called him Killer Man.
Together we were the Three Amigos who fight all antigens, pathogens and abnormal body cells.
We act as the body immune system with antibodies, enzymes and toxic granules to kill the body cells which are hijacked by germs and cancer cells.
Without us the Three Amigos to protect the body cells, the human body may be over run by pathogens and mutant cells.
I was born in the bone marrow but only matured in the Thymus. The name of T cells is given to me and my brother lymphocytes.
In contrast the B cell or Antibody Man was born and matured in the bone marrow in humans.
The Killer Man or NK cell was born in the bone marrow and matured in the bone marrow, spleen, thymus, lymph nodes in the human body.
My lymphocyte cells have different functions:
1. T cell helper. secrete small proteins called cytokines that regulate the active immune response
2. Cytotoxic T cells, destroy virally infected cells and tumor cells.
3. Memory T cells remember how to counter past infections
4. Regulatory T cells (Treg cells shut down T cell-mediated immunity toward the end of an immune reaction and to suppress auto-reactive T cells
5. Natural killer T cells recognize and eliminate some tumor cells and cells infected with herpes viruses.
My friend the Antibody Man produces antibodies in the body to kill abnormal body cells which are attacking the body
There are nine antibodies which are produced by Antibody Man called human immunoglobulins (Ig)-four kinds of IgG and two kinds of IgA, plus IgM, IgE, and IgD
My other partner Killer Man is larger than us and is activated in response to interferons.
Like my Cytotoxic T-cell, Killer Man also contains granules filled with potent chemicals
Antibody Man has a large arsenal of antibodies to fight germs.
if one of us is unable to kill the pathogen, the other two will.
That is why we are called the Three Amigos.
Our life span can vary from a few days to many years.
Some of us will be killed by the pathogen before our amigos manage to kill it.
Our memories remain on how we were able to kill the pathogen

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Lymphocyte, Functions, Diseases
Chapter 2 Abnormal Immune Reaction
Chapter 3 Lymphatic System
Chapter 4 Lym

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Dec 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463143780

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Lymphocyte, Functions

Diseases,

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Condition,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2018 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Lymphocyte, Functions, Diseases, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Lymphocyte, Functions, Diseases)

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiolographical account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiolographical account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Lymphocyte

What is a Lymphocyte?

A Lymphocyte is a small white blood cell that carries out the activities of the immune system

They number about one trillion.

What is the appearance of a lymphocyte?

Normal circulating human blood shows red blood cells, several types of white blood cells such as lymphocytes, a monocyte, a neutrophil and many small disc-shaped platelets.

The normal lymphocyte has a large, dark-staining nucleus with little to no eosinophilic cytoplasm.

The coarse, dense nucleus of a lymphocyte is about the size of a red blood cell (about 7 micrometers in diameter).

Some lymphocytes show a clear perinuclear zone (or halo) around the nucleus or could show a small clear zone to one side of the nucleus.

Polyribosome is an important feature in the lymphocytes and can be viewed with an electron microscope.

The ribosomes are engaged in protein synthesis, permitting the generation of large quantities of cytokines and immunoglobulins by these cells.

The lymphocytes are of 2 types:

1. Larger Lymphocytes called Natural Killer cells (NK cells) which are natural killers of pathogenic cells and tumor cells by releasing toxins in their granules to kill these cells.

2. Small Lymphocytes which also kill pathogens using their antibodies and toxic cytokines which they secrete to kill the pathogenic cells.

a. B cells, which grow to maturity independent of the thymus

B cells function mainly by secreting soluble substances called antibodies into the body's fluids, or humors.

This is called humoral immunity.

b. T cells, which are processed in the thymus.

T cells act together directly with their targets, attacking body cells that have been taken over by viruses or warped malignancy.

This is called cellular immunity.

It is difficult to differentiate between T cells and B cells in a peripheral blood smear.

Flow cytometry testing is done for specific lymphocyte population counts.

This is done to specifically find out the proportion of lymphocytes that has a particular combination of specific cell surface proteins such as immunoglobulins or cluster of differentiation (CD) markers or that form particular proteins (cytokines using intracellular cytokine staining (ICCS)).

Other methods like the secretion assay techniques can be done to study the function of a lymphocyte by the proteins it produces.

The lymphocyte travels from lymph node to lymph node and in the blood circulation.

This is in contrast with macrophages which remain stationary in the nodes.

How do Lymphocytes fight disease?

A lymphocyte count is normally part of a peripheral full blood cell count and is expressed as proportion of lymphocytes to total white blood cells counted.

A wide-ranging rise in the number of lymphocytes is called lymphocytosis while a reduction is lymphocytopenia.

1. Lymphocytosis:

A rise in lymphocyte concentration is normally a sign of a viral infection.

In some rare cases, leukemias are evident through an abnormally raised lymphocyte count in an otherwise normal person.

A high lymphocyte count with a low neutrophil count might be produced by lymphoma.

2. Lymphocytopenia:

A low normal to low absolute lymphocyte concentration is linked with raised rates of infection after surgery or trauma.

What are Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes?

In some cancers such as melanoma, lymphocytes can travel into and attack the tumor.

This can occasionally cause regression of the primary tumor.

How do Lymphocytes begin?

Human stem cells begin to differentiate into several types of blood cell within the bone marrow.

This process is called hematopoiesis.

All lymphocytes begin during this process from a general lymphoid progenitor before differentiating into their distinct lymphocyte types.

The differentiation of lymphocytes accompanies various pathways in a hierarchical fashion as well as in a more plastic fashion.

The formation of lymphocytes is called lymphopoiesis.

The formation of a Lymphocyte:

Lymphopoiesis is the term given to depict the production of lymphocytes.

The process is signaled by certain chemical messengers.

The chemical messengers work as either hormones or paracrines (hormone synthesized in and released from endocrine cells attaches to its receptor in nearby cells and affects their function)

The chemical messengers that activate the production of lymphocytes are glycoproteins that fall under the families of hematopoietic factors such as the interleukins and the colony-stimulating factors.

The mature WBCs and the supporting cells of bone marrow secrete the hematopoietic factors.

These hematopoietic factors not only induce the precursors of white blood cells to divide and mature but it also improves the potency to protect of mature leukocytes.

In the early stages, a division between the lymphoid stem cells and the myeloid stem cells happen.

The lymphoid stem cells are the ones that form lymphocytes while myeloid stem cells are accountable for producing all other formed elements.

In the formation of granulocyte, myeloblasts first occur and with enough accumulated lysosomes become pro-myelocytes.

As the pro-myelocytes go on to mature, distinctive granules emerge and then they become myelocytes.

When they develop into myelocytes, cell division ceases.

The myelocytes then go on to mature as just before they leave the bone marrow as granulocytes, their nuclei shrinks, beginning the process of nuclear segmentation. 

There is an even higher quantity of stored granulocyte compared to the quantity of granulocytes circulating in the bloodstream.

Most of the granulocytes are killed fighting with invading microorganism;

Hence the body tends to create more.

The normal ratio of granulocytes to erythrocytes formed is 3:1.

All blood cells are formed in the bone marrow and they arise from a type of cell called the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC).

These special cells are capable of maintaining their numbers by self renewal and are capable of forming any of the numerous blood cell types.

During the early stages of life, this process takes place in the yolk sac from whence it shifts to the liver and spleen during the third month