Immunity system complexity: neutrophiles and heavy traffic (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, June 06, 2020, 14:56 (1419 days ago) @ David Turell

They avoid jams by controlling the flow:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6495/1077.5

"Neutrophils are the most abundant immune cell in the circulation and are typically the first responders to sites of infection or injury. How large numbers of neutrophils can efficiently travel through capillary networks is a mystery. Wang et al. investigated neutrophil trafficking in mouse liver using intravital microscopy and found that groups of neutrophils diverged at capillary bifurcations by traveling in an alternating pattern. This phenomenon was then studied in a controlled fashion using microfluidic chips connected to a chemoattractant chamber. Neutrophils were able to bias the decisions made by their companions at bifurcations by altering both hydraulic resistance and chemoattractant gradients. It is likely that similar mechanisms are widely used to coordinate complex immune responses."

Comment: Designed intelligent responses to traffic flow. dhw will say each cell knows what it is doing and thinks about what to do.