Your immune system sometimes snoozes
Turns out your defenses take breaks too. Here's when and why
Almost every single soldier patrolling your body's defense system right now
How long do most white blood cells live inside the human body?
- Turns out your defenses take breaks too. Here's when and why
- When you see pus from an infection, you are looking at a mass graveyard of millions of white blood cells that died in combat.
- This constant cycle of birth and death means your entire internal defense force is almost entirely new every week.
Most of the white blood cells patrolling your body right now will be dead by Tuesday. While your red blood cells live a long, stable life of about 120 days, many common white blood cells, like neutrophils, survive for only a few days.
These cells are the disposable infantry of your immune system. They are designed to hunt, engage, and often destroy themselves in the process of neutralizing a threat.
When you see pus from an infection, you are looking at a mass graveyard of millions of white blood cells that died in combat. Your bone marrow has to work at a furious pace to keep up, churning out 100 billion new white blood cells every single day.
Some specialist cells, like B and T memory cells, are the exception. They can live for years or even decades, acting as the 'veterans' that remember how to fight a specific virus you encountered in childhood.
This constant cycle of birth and death means your entire internal defense force is almost entirely new every week.
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