Video: What Are White Blood Cells?

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Don't know much about your blood? Learn the white cell's role and why it's important to research in this free video clip about the facts of blood donation.

Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Claudia Benekie and I manage one of the research laboratories here at the Stanford Blood Center. It is very unusual for blood centers to have your basic research laboratories and this blood center has several. I would like to discuss, a little bit, about what we are researching in our laboratory and how we interact with the blood center. We study white blood cells. Now, if you look at a blood specimen, it looks very red. That's because there are a lot of red cells in there. However, in among the red cells, there are white blood cells. These white blood cells are extremely important in keeping each and every one of us healthy. These blood cells are located in the blood, as I mentioned. They are packed in between the cells of the skin. They are packed between the lining of the lungs and in the esophagus. Also they are in the gastrointestinal tract. So, these cells are located anywhere where the body may come in contact with foreign matter. Now, foreign matter can be viruses. It can be bacteria. It can be a malignant cell or a mismatched organ transplant. Anything that is not "self" or of you, is foreign matter. It is the responsibility of these white blood cells to do several things. Number one, they sequester these foreign materials and make sure that they do not go any further than necessary. Then, there are actually mechanisms whereby these white blood cells can destroy this foreign matter and remove it from the body. So, it is obviously extremely important to have a healthy white blood cell population in your body. This whole symphony of processes that go on once the white cells encounter foreign matter is called an immune response. This immune response is what is responsible for keeping you and each and every one else healthy.

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What Are White Blood Cells?

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