#Macrophages eat things

[neverquiteeden]

looking over the relationship between natural killer cells and macrophages and going ah yes, like in Hannibal

[googleitlol]

This is a crack fic I wrote for a friend, be warned of the somewhat sexual content and the test to your sanity this may bring. I am so sorry. @tottybeanlove

Geno's Oreo

Geno stretches as he strolls into his kitchen, already in his muffin-themed pyjamas for the night. They are made from a sultry lilac silk that have been altered by one of Geno’s husbands, the pyjamas littered in muffins with little butter-berets and cute little faces. The muffins themselves are made of a cheap felt material, stapled to the shirt and pyjama pants.

The world’s #1 hater’s day has been a long one. Geno just finished up his 15 hour shift at Walmart; he counted a total of 8 lost children, 23 Karens, and 16 arguments between spouses in aisle 9 that resulted in divorce today. Thankfully, the day is now over and he can enjoy some rest at home. It’s a good thing he bought a special treat for himself earlier in the week.

Crouching down to a kitchen cupboard Geno knows is stocked with the the most mouth-watering of snacks, he opens it to find– the fuck? Where are they? He could have sworn he put them here, they were the first item on his grocery list yesterday! Geno even used his Super-Kawaii-Deluxe-Employee Discount of 0.05% off at Walmart. They haven’t even been opened yet, where could they have gone?

“Looking for something, Butter Muffin?”

Geno looks up to see his husband, the Six-Eared Macaque, perching atop the fridge like the gargoyle he is, a lazy grin on his face as he watches his precious Grass rise to his feet. “Why the fuck are you on the fridge??” Geno frowns, looking his smexy lover up and down with contempt.

Mahogany shrugs. “So your short-ass wouldn’t be able to reach me, Short-Ass.” Geno rolls his eyes over his lover’s antics. The two often teased one another with hateful words and unbridled rage, though they both knew their words were a simple mask over their uncontrollable lust for one another. Their other husband, Sun Wukong, would be having a good show tonight in bed. He also ordained their marriage, but that isn’t too important now. Not when Geno notices what’s in Macadamias’ hands. “Are– Are you eating my fucking oreos?!”

Macintosh glances down at the stack of oreos in his arms, and uses his tail to subtly brush away a few crumbs nestled in the corner of his mouth. They roll down his velvety fur, intricately weaving between each strand before landing on the top of the fridge. “…I didn’t see your name on them.”

“My name was on the fucking box!” Geno growls, and Macromole has to hold back from biting his soft, plump lips in reaction to the unadulterated attraction he feels in the moment. He has to remember that he won’t be able to do anything too visceral tonight, not while he carries his Snart-Fiffer’s unborn child.

Macho-Libre hums, his voice low and sensual. “I don’t see the box around here, Pookie-Stick, do you?”

“You took them out of the box!”

“You didn’t write your name on each individual one.”

“I shouldn’t have to, they’re supposed to stay in the fucking box!” Geno shouts, and Bear-Mace simply shrugs in reply before plopping a thick double-stuffed oreo in his mouth.

That’s the final straw, and before the One-Eyed Macrame can hear what’s about to happen, his lovely Oil Cheeks leaps up at him with the raw athletic power of Simone Biles jumping over Shaq. Geno manages to snatch Macrophage’s tail and yank it with him as he falls to the ground. Machinable barely has time to latch onto the fridge in order to stop himself from falling, his horde of cream-filled cookies scattering over the appliance and bouncing onto the floor where many of them break more violently than Bane breaking Batman’s back.

Geno clings to his hubby-zubby’s tail, and while his grip is strong (as Macaroni already knows), it isn’t strong enough for when the half-blind Shadow the Hedgehog begins whipping it back and forth in an attempt to shake him off, much like that one Taylor Swift song (Shake it Off is Taylor Swift, right?)

The shaking of his fat dumpy is enough to send his Kitten Whisker’s into orbit. However, seeing as they are both inside, Geno flies into the wall instead. The entire side of their kitchen snap, crackles, and crumples onto what one might consider a honey badger in human form, burying them in debris.

Mallory hops down from his safe-haven and rushes to what might have just become a crime scene. “Ranch? Are you okay, Biscuit Fart?”

A head pops out from the crumbled remains of the wall, much like the bulge in Macrofossil’s pants. “No, you threw me into a fucking wall!”

“Yeah, but like, are you hurt?” Macarena asks while turning away to start collecting whatever unbroken oreos he can find on the ground. After all, the five-second rule is still a thing fifteen seconds after food touches the floor.

Geno gives his lover a baffled look, half-wondering if he in-fact was more of a dumb-ass than he already believed him to be. “I CAN’T GET UP! THE FUCKING WALL CAVED IN ON ME!!!”

Macrobiotic’s ultra-hot-seductive voice makes a return as he hums, though it’s a borderline moan. Why would he be moaning at this? I don’t know, he’s a little fucked up. “Hmm… you should probably stay there, then. You don’t wanna move around too much and pull something, my Cutey-Hangnail-Toilet-Seat.”

“Screw you, jackass!” Geno seethes as Minnesota disappears into his own shadow before popping up beside his lover.

“I love you too, my Hubby-Wubby-Bubba-Boo.” He swoons before attempting to feed his Vanilla Wafer an oreo. However, his precious Parmesan refuses to eat it. Instead the creampie-sandwich sits on Geno’s face, over his air-tight sealed lips. Michegan really wants to devour those lips.

He refrains from doing so, instead stacking a few more oreos on his Sugar-Snot’s mouth before sharing a look of longing with him. Mariana-Trench looks at Sriracha-Sprinkler with a look of utter desire and lust while Geno himself glares with a look of unfiltered hatred. Truly, a match for the ages.

A wild Sun Wukong appears!

“Hey it’s me, Wukong!” He declares, not even taking steps into the kitchen. He just sort of slides into frame, I’m losing my sanity and this is becoming low budget.

Geno isn’t losing his sanity, he’s just tired of everyone’s shit. “SHUT THE FUCK UP, WUKONG!”

Both Wukong and Mac Miller gasp, a single diamond of a tear falling gracefully from the Great Sage’s face. “How could you?! I love you, Geno-Senpai!” He declares, dramatically placing a heartbroken hand over his chest while giving his lover the most chihuahua of puppy-dog eyes.

“If you love me, you’d get me back my goddamn oreos.” Geno scoffs, and the Monkey King looks between his lover, his other lover, and the oreos in his other lover’s gloves (Glove-rs? Donald Glover? Is this America?)

Due to the lack of budget, Wukong slides towards BigMac– the name he uses in bed– and robotically takes an oreo like the npc he is. He then places the oreo on top of the stack that is already on Geno’s face.

Trapped beneath the rubble of the wall, he can only glare at his husbands while plotting their murder (second murder, in Macaque’s case) “Jesus fucking Christ.”

In steps Jesus Christ, not sliding because the Son of the Holy Father is not constrained to simple things like budget. “You called?”

[honorthysalad]

Well with that whole 1519 European man having encountered something resembling 'Hikaru's insides and also that Nounuki-sama might not be what we think it is, time to reveal my theory that there’s actually a ton of ‘Unukis’ around the world.

I think the Unuki as we know it is a piece of the world’s immune system. That when too many impurities are in one area or there’s a tear in the membrane allowing a spill-over, an Unuki develops/is made somehow to halt the infection and consume the impurities. That’s why ‘Hikaru’ is able to destroy them when normally they can’t be; it’s his whole purpose, and he has other mechanisms in order to draw impurities to him to make them easier to consume.

As we know, before Unuki worship, there was plague and famine in the village which caused a lot of deaths, and Kegare is created by contact with death, disease, childbirth, and menstruation... for some reason. Anyway, that’d explain why there’s just so many here and why something needed to come in to clean it all up.

(the true secret of the abortion pills. if you're not pregnant, you're menstruating, which means more Kegare. maybe they were relevant....)

This may also be why ‘Hikaru’ wants to eat Yoshiki’s soul so badly; he’s reading as an impurity (proven by the fact he’s being rejected by a barrier made to keep them out), and so ‘Hikaru’ wants to take him in and destroy him. ‘Hikaru’ may see him as ‘warm’ but it’s probably in the same way a meal is warm and filling— that’s his food, that’s what he wants to eat.

Only thing I don’t really understand is wish granting, but we only have two instances on record of the Unuki granting wishes, one in a storybook and the Hichi wish. All the rest never got granted no matter how many offerings they brought. However, at the same time, wish granting doesn’t seem specific to the Unuki; Kurebayashi’s husband was able to make Iori’s pokemon stronger so unless he had a GameShark in that closet, there’s something more going on.

And also here’s a collection of an lung macrophages cuz they reminded me of ‘Hikaru’s insides:

And also a picture of a resting vs active B-cell. Once it’s activated, it produces more rough ER and Mitochondria, significantly increasing its size:

Yeah, so I think the Nounuki is just a natural part of the world, kind of meant to keep the supernatural and mundane apart. The special thing about 'Hikaru' is that he's what he is now, not that he was once Nounuki-sama.

Will admit these might just all be inspirations for the Nounuki, and he's still Hell itself, but eh- I like it when things that appeared unexplainable at first turn out to be perfectly natural. what can I say lol? And like when you think of the world as a body and every living thing inside it as a cell, it makes even more sense how impurities infect things. It's not that they're lonely- they need hosts, but also cause those hosts to die. Those tears in the membrane are no different than tears in the skin, opening the body to outside pathogens. Makes you wonder what's naturally fixes them; it can't just be on people like Kurebayashi.

[giulliadella]

WE HAVE SOLVED THE MYSTERY OF WHY CELLS HATE NEUTROPHILS SO MUCH IN CAW

So, last night, my boyfriend and I got into some random discussion about programmed cell death and some new breakthroughs in medicine, you know, the usual things you talk about with your boyfriend at 1 AM. It is well known that leftover bodies of dead cells are phagocytosed (literally consumed) by macrophages. And that’s why I always wondered why aren’t cells scared of macrophages as much as they are of neutrophils, since neutrophils don’t consume the dead cells. With my limited understanding of immunity (which we technically don’t learn a lot about in biology) I thought that neutrophils only consumed invader bacteria and fungi.

And OH BOY was I wrong about that.

Because (and yes I have spent whole night researching this, I’ll provide the links to papers in the end lol) neutrophils are little freaks and not only do they phagocytose leftovers of cells they actually cause them to die in the first place. This happens during infections, especially with viruses that cause the excess release of cytokines (like Coronaviridae). Cytokines activate neutrophils who basically just follow the signal towards the infection site and there all hell breaks loose. Neutrophils phagocytose bacteria and virions (those are viruses that haven’t infected a cell yet) which is fine, but they also degranulate and NETose. I’ll explain this in simple terms to my best ability.

Degranulation is when granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils and mastocytes are all different granulocytes) release their granules which are kind of like little sacks inside their cytoplasm which contain various chemicals. Releasing these chemicals happens when the cell receives appropriate stimulus, the little granules expel their contents out of the cell’s interior. In the case of neutrophils, granules contain very toxic compounds that cause the formation of free radicals which damage DNA and proteins of the surrounding cells, as well as granules filled with digestive enzymes which, well, digest the surrounding tissues.

NETosis is a special type of cell death specific to neutrophils in which they literally degranulate pieces of their own, or their mitochondrial DNA together with more toxic compounds. This creates a net of DNA strands called chromatin which entangles invading bacteria and severely damages them and also marks them for phagocytosis by macrophages. But this process is not well controlled and some of that chromatin and toxic compounds can land onto neighboring cells which is, as you can conclude, very bad for them.

With these two abilities at hand, neutrophils are very well equipped to kill cells and destroy tissue. Which is good in cases when the cells are infected and the tissue is damaged, but their quite aggressive methods can damage healthy cells in the area as well, some of them will die and neutrophils will phagocytose their dead particles. 

Basically, to neutrophils every infection is a huge kill and eat all you can buffet. They literally phagocytose until they physically cannot anymore and then go to the spleen or bone marrow to die. They also allow macrophages to consume them and thus pass on the antigens for antigen presentation which influences further immune response. But they can also cause a lot of damage, especially if cytokine storm happens and they completely lose control. This is what causes SARS and it can kill you if it’s severe enough. 

Biologically speaking, neutrophils are very important because they are the first ones to come to the sight of infection and their crazy methods usually finish the things before they get too severe. They themselves produce cytokines that mobilize macrophages and dendritic cells so that more immune cells can join and help them. They also have a role in repairing the tissues they damaged.

However, other immune cells, including macrophages and killer T cells, simply don’t cause as much damage. Neutrophils just go all out, which is why they live for such a short period of time compared to their colleagues (they live for only few days, compared to macrophages who can live up to a month and lymphocytes who can live for months, even years).

So, yeah, my boyfriend and I have concluded (at 4AM this morning) that neutrophils are so feared because they damage tissue, go crazy and violently kill healthy cells by accident, then consume them and that’s not by accident, it’s a mechanism to repair tissues.

I can’t believe I wasted whole night just for this. My boyfriend is also disappointed. But I hope that we finally have an explanation for this mystery. Tell me what you think lol.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8589350/

https://www.nature.com/articles/nri.2017.105

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5820392/#:~:text=Neutrophils%20contribute%20to%20tissue%20injury,detail%20here%20(Kruger%20et%20al.

[kirby-the-gorb]

reply roundup!

I've done basically nothing but lay down and be exhausted since kirb2k over 2 months ago, but I did at least get the kirbox orders fulfilled. I have an immunology appointment in another 2 1/2 months and maybe they might do something to help me feel better. (it's a bad time. I know it seems to be most of what I talk about, but it is kind of all-consuming. even this roundup wore me out.)

also there are sometimes comments that make me smile but I don't have anything to add to them so I just read them and smile and don't put them in the roundups, but I promise I do see them all, like the many yeehaws (and yes haws and heehaws) for [cowboy kirb] <3

on [the last roundup] @hive-heart said: Hope things get better, kirby guy 💕 thanks for the reply :) also yeah! Sitting by the window during a storm is quite nice

they haven't lol, but thank you!

on [kirb2k] @ceylonsilvergirl said: HAPPY Y2K EVERYBODY!! I am joke, but it did give me serious “turn of the century’’ vibes. oof… that sentence hit me like I drank out of the wrong grail

that was intentional, that's also why we started with the macarena in the 1990s :>

on [errands] @crypptiid said: ME! MY ROLLATOR IS BLUE AND EVERUTHING @sunflowerinthemidst said: oh look it's me only my walker is hot pink 1😅😂

nice! I should really repaint mine if I'm ever feeling well enough lol

on [the last roundup] @gudetamalover said: :O!!! I’ve been noticed! My surgery went very well btw, thank you! [details removed for privacy.] I love your art so much btw, it brings me and my mom so much joy! I love this little pink dude, he’s got a permanent place in my heart ❤️ 

man that sounds rough, good thing it got ironed out quickly! and I'm glad it brings you both joy <3

on [errands] @pilcherthegreat said: oooo might add this one to my Kirby brigade tattoo 👀

oh hell yeah that sounds so cool! (for anyone else wondering, tattoos on your own body count as personal use and are totally fine by me!)

on [screaming] @persimmonlions said: i always forget how much i do not like the chaotic cacophony of a crowd until i am in a mall, like ‘oh yeah i DO get overstimulated no wonder i constantly skipped classes when i was 10’. anyway i got back home at 3 and proceeded to sleep for 6 hours

ugh omg yeah especially when you actually reblogged this 2 months ago and there were still holiday crowds and all the extra decor and stuff, the mall can be So Much.

on [macarena] @unconventionalvoidaxolotls said: holy heck, go kirby go! oh yeah this is a great first post. beautiful

ehehehe it's an honor :3

on [plushies] @the-void-is-a-disappointment said: finally getting around to reblogging this but thank you bunches for the commission!he looks so comfy and cozy i love it, he deserves this

he does! he does deserve to be so cozy and cute! (and thank you again for the support!)

on [bloodstream] @lord-chiopet said: Kirby in my blood could fix me

well he certainly wouldn't make me worse lol (fun fact: you kind of already have a bunch of kirb-likes in your blood! macrophages are a type of white blood cell that engulf and isolate or destroy foreign matter like splinters, viruses, and even tattoo ink! they're basically eating anything that tries to get into your blood that's not supposed to be there -u- )

on [fire] @jupiterlandings said: kirby I am hurrying to you with blankets and a tent and a warm meal, we may be in the wilderness kirby but we can still look at the stars even when the night is cold. and even if we can’t see them they’re still there and they’ll send the sun to look after us tomorrow. it’ll be ok kirby we’ll be ok

waah this is just such a sweet thought ;n; thank you for sharing it.

on [frown] @shapeshifterwithafez said: get well soon OP :c <3 this kirby nevertheless brings joy to my dashboard thank you!

I will not but thank you! I'm glad he brings joy regardless :)

on [worm] @thecosmickitty said: Hey fam just wanna say i love your art. Thank you for sharing (:

aww thanks!

on [mcas] @untoldsoup said: Im sorry about the health issues 😞 hope you get the treatment your looking for

I appreciate it <3 it's still gonna take a while one way or the other, but hopefully eventually someone will do something.

on [float (up)] @ceylonsilvergirl [added] a ufo to abduct him, then on [rainbow] they [added] an alien kirb to greet him, and on [freckles] they [added] the view out the ufo window :) this little saga was very cute and did cheer me up a bit, thank you <3

on [float (down)] @angst-and-fajitas said: Ah he's floatin away

the kirb's not made for helium balloons! (a reference to [this vine], and good news this upload is actually from the person that made it!)

on [sacrifice] @joekingv1 said: *sits next to baby and waits to see what happens*

I really wanna draw a short comic for this but it seems like I'm not gonna feel up to it anytime soon -n-

on [stars] @gidkog said: *GASP* at world’s ass…

oh no you're right :x that was not on purpose lol

on [earring] @roboticutie said: yay!!!! he's here again today :D thank you!!!

your enthusiasm is sweet! he will be here every day! :)

on [sora] @ducksandlemonsandbigoldfish said: Kiev Kernel Kirby I hate autocorrect

this made me laugh lol

on [sora] @canvascoloredin said: congratulations! I've played all the kingdom hearts games (except Melody of Memories, Sorry Kairi), and started when I was around six but haven't had the time to buy a console I can play 3 on. Have fun for me!

I haven't played melody of memories yet either, the rhythm for all the rhythm minigames was always so janky that I'm kind of worried about how it might play tbh. but I am having lots of fun, I'm sure it's enough for both of us!

on [tattoos] @theraphos said: high five kirby i just recently resolved to finally get myself a tattoo this year also

nice! I hope it goes well :)

@turpial-thoughts asked: hi

hello!

on [worry] @graycoin said: I hope the wait is worth it.

yeah me too :s (thanks. and for all your other sympathetic comments whenever I complain about it as well <3 )

on [float (side)] @joekingv1 said: *asks baby what they think about when they go floating*

probably very little I imagine. even less than usual lol

on [bread] @joekingv1 said: *asks baby what they got while secretly hiding some extra treats for baby, Bear and Cake*

this one is just very cute, I had to read it aloud to my partner when I saw it.

on [sea] @graycoin said: This gets across the vibe very well. I get why you'd feel that way, I think. It's understandable. I'm glad people are trying. You deserve it.

thanks. I've always had a hard time conveying like, internal stuff for some reason, so it's nice when it seems to make sense to someone else.

on [sea] @ceylonsilvergirl said: Kirbo is in the storm, tossed by the waves, threatened by lightning at any moment in the dark. not even the stars to shine through the clouds. but he’s still floating, and that has to count for something

surely it must count for something TnT <3

[squidsandthings]

BIOLOGY???!!?!??!??!?

i have never not ever seen someone on tumblr with biology listed in their interests as a fellow biology enthusiast i demand to know more tell me more please

what kind of biology specifically?? or just in general?? is it like WOAH BIOLOGY or just haha yeah biology is cool ig (because if you can’t tell already i am very much the former biology is so awesome i am not okay)

it’s entomology for me, more specifically moths, like. aaaaa a a aaaaa a aaaaa i lovmnv them… moths….. i lovembe motjs…..

so yes SPILL BIOLOGY INFO PLEASE !! AND/OR ANYTJING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO RANT ABOUT !! I DO NOT CARE I JUST LIKE RANTING WITH SILLY PEOPLE ON THIS SILLY SITE !!!

HIHI TY SO MUCH FOR THE ASK :DD

I love biology so much. Definitely a 'WOAH BIOLOGY' more than a "it's kinda cool ig" lol. The more I learn about biology and different fields in biology the more I fall in love with it. I just think learning the ways in which life, like, works (for lack of better phrasing) I dunno it's just so cool to learn about, and think about. All the little things that go into life.

I've always had a particular fascination with human biology. And specifically Anatomy and Physiology. As a like 1st or 2nd grader my mom got me a book which was basically very simplified anatomy and physiology and It became my personality till I started middle school. I think it's so neat to learn about something and that thing be something that's happening within you right now. One of my favorite things in my biology classes is doing labs/dissections because it's so cool to feel and touch and see the things which are actively keeping you alive. Also I'm a big fan of dendritic cells (my favorite cell <3).

I would say my interest in biology has definitely broadened in recent times. Recently I've been learning more about Ornithology. I'm trying starting bird watching and I generally think birds fucking cool as hell. I actually started learning more about Ornithology because I really like pigeons. And I wanted to learn more about birds in general, so I started watching yt videos about them and googling and now I can say that I think probably too much about Birds.

Interestingly marine biology used to be interest of mine, but it's never been my main love when it comes to biology. Which is funny since most of my online accounts are related to squid.

------------------------------------------------------------

ANYWAY THIS IS ALL BESIDES THE POINT.

the point being this gives me and excuse to talk about my true love in life...the immune system and specifically dendritic cells. I. am. so. normal. about these antigen presenting baddies. I fuckin love them. The immune system has always been the most interesting system to me as someone who spent most of their childhood in a battle to the death with their immune system. So anyway lemme tell you about my favorite cell in the human body: Dendritic Cells/DC's

(pls note i'm by no means and expert and while I like to talk about this stuff I might get stuff wrong. I just think its all neat, but my research is mostly googling and the occasional book I find on the topic, so take all of this with a grain of salt)

So the immune system. It's pretty cool. Helps keep you alive and stuff. Roughly speaking there's two sorta categories in your immune system. Your innate and your adaptive immune system.

Innate: I like to think of the innate immune system like a safety net. Generalized, Broad, but it does what it's trying to do well. It's your first line of defense. Your skin and mucous membranes are part of this, but so are cells like macrophages which can eat pathogens. Its focused on blocking and destroying, but sometimes this doesn't work and the pathogen works too fast or goes undected for too long. Then you need something more specialized to help out.

Adaptive: This is the special ops of ur immune system. They target pathogens directly by identifying them and using that to target them. Since it needs to take the time to identify the pathogen tho, it's slower, which is why the fast but generalized innate response is also important. This part of ur immune system is also why vaccines work. Certain cells in this part of ur immune system have the ability to basically remember these past infections. So next time you get sick the adaptive response can kick in right away.

So where do dendritic cells fit into this???

IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. So, Dendritic cells are actually kinda both part of the innate an adaptive response. How? Well, I'll tell you.

So dendritic cells hang out across ur body and act like immune system watchtowers. So when a pathogen comes strolling in looking to cause trouble ur innate immune response is going to (usually) start giving it some pushback. With things like Macrophages (that eat pathogens). But as I mentioned before the innate response while fast, is nonspecific. The adaptive response is what can target pathogens directly. But how does the adaptive response even get started? Does the innate response have something to like go tell the adaptive response "Hey this is what we're dealing with wake up and go fight it"? YES. And that's the dendritic cell.

So Dendritic cells are innate immune response cells which engulf pathogens and present them on the outside of their cell membrane. Once they've done that they can actually inform the immune response against those pathogens.

How do they do this?

Why T and B cells ofc!

So once the dendritic cell has got all the details on the pathogen it travels to ur lymph tissue and activates the adaptive immune cells there. Informing the immune response based on the antigen it's presenting.

These funky antigen presenting cells are responsible for bridging the gap between your immune responses and also help in maintaining ur immune system's memory.

alright maybe you don't see how cool they are. I get it. lemme give you an example of why they're SO important. :D

I'm going to be discussing HIV. As many people know HIV attacks the immune system. Most notably through T-Cells, but also through Dendritic Cells.

You see when the HIV virus enters the body Dendritic cells are going to usually be one of the first immune cells it interacts with. Normally the Dendritic cell would take down virus and start an adaptive immune response, however the HIV virus has a way to take over Dendritic cells using their ability to travel to cell to quickly infect the adaptive immune cells the Dendritic cell normally actives. This allows the virus to more quickly decimate an immune system. The Dendritic Cells being compromised decimating much of the adaptive immune response.

Does that example kinda highlight my point?

I hope so.

But yeah these bad boy are fucking awesome and more people should be aware of them. I think they're rad.

Hope that wasn't too long of a rant...

ty again for the ask and giving me an excuse to talk about my favorite cell. :D

[ittybittybumblebee]

Ooh! Requests!? PLEASE MORE GOOPY!

Does Goopy eat with their mouth or do they schlooooop around stuff to eat (or steal for later) like a macrophage engulfing bacteria?

AOAUHAHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHGGH NACHT THE I LVOE GOOPY IMAGE ONGG LOSING MY SHIT THIS LITERALLY MADE MY DAY IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY GOOPSTER THAT MUCH

Heres some of he

They can indeed schloop up stuff to eat if he is hungry enough!! but they prefer eating with their mouth! To get the full taste/ texture experience yknow

Im literally so glad you liked him enough to go make that image cuz thats literally the best thing ever i started cackling like a maniac when i saw it cuz the energy is the perfect visual for when im thinking abt goopy :)

[sourcreamanonion]

The umbilical vein is a fascinating structure. After birth, the remnant forms a ligament of the liver, as well as paraumbilical veins with partial occlusion. Your body can make use of this structure during certain conditions—namely liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension. Your paraumbilical veins recanalize and act as a portosystemic shunt, pulling your blood from your guts to your heart in lieu of your struggling portal vein.

Have you heard of angiogenesis? New vessels can sprout from existing vessels, which can fuse back into each other and form new networks. Growth factors lead them to tissues that are starved of oxygen, and macrophages act as shepherds guiding their tips together. Your body is geared to create, to map, to seek out where you most need help, all throughout your life.

When you scream (or plan to generate any vocalization), your body protects itself. The tensor tympani muscle contracts when your brain plans to vocalize, tightening up your ear drums. This extends to most systems in your body; research shows your body keeps duplicates of movement-producing neural signals called efference copies. Efference copies exist to help predict (and suppress) the sensory consequences of willed movements. It's why you can't feel yourself the same as you feel others, can't hear yourself the same as you hear other things, why the world doesn't spin when your eyes move. It's also thought to influence your inner speech (one study suggests that internal speech alone can elicit an efference copy, thus causing sensory attenuation of audible sounds).

Your extremities prune because your blood vessels are instructed to shrink by your autonomic nervous system, not because they are absorbing water. They change so you might have a better grip on wet surfaces. So you might better interact with the world.

Your eyes perceive light where there is none via phosphenes. Phosphenes can be induced by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation... or through cells firing within the visual system. Some historians think that entopic phenomena influenced Upper Paleolithic art; many paintings and engravings mimic the geometric lattices and vascular patterns we can perceive with our eyes.

(Did our ancestors see light in the darkness just as we do now? Was that special to them?)

Phosphenes are hardly the only form in which our body can estimate sensations. There are so many perceptual metamers. Think of metamerism in colorimetry and metamerism in tactile vibrations. Two structurally different perceptions might seem identical to us. How amazing is it that we can imagine familiarity when the actual structure of a sensation is so different from what we perceive? Light and sound and touch have made a home in you.

Think of how we perceive color as a whole. The sky is violet, but you might be painting it blue... and that is special. That is unique.

So much can go "wrong" in your body with so many complex mechanisms at play... engineering is like that. But isn't it a little magical that your body can utilize inert remnants, that it can generate new networks, redirect your blood flow to your brain... all shifting in an effort to keep you alive? That your body knows itself inherently and uses that knowledge so it won't damage itself? That your body might eat itself in the name of preserving what is most important (you, you, you)? That your body can see and hear and feel things that are not a part of your immediate perception? And that, at any given moment, so many systems in your body are working impossibly to bring you to a state of consciousness... constantly redirecting, constantly shifting, constantly calculating?

(Because it wants to. Because it loves you. Even if you think we can't presume that.)

I think it's helped me to see that my body is neither jury-rigged nor perfectly orchestrated, but rather the simple sum of evolution... of change, of difference, of life charting a way. It's helped me to see what is working to keep me alive, to see that there is something really spectacular going on, something worth protecting.

I hope you can see that too.

[thelonely]

the only thing getting me through academic hell (aka immuno) are the fun little clips my prof will put at the end of lectures of like. macrophages eating antigens while intense orchestral music plays, or eosinophils nuking parasitic worms while elevator music loops in the background. queen shit

[hippocrateswellness]

The Long Covid Dilemma

By Brian Clement Ph.D., L.N

Here on the Hippocrates Wellness campus, we, like every other group of healthcare professionals, work with people daily who tell us about symptoms that linger and linger without any viable assistance from conventional means. One institute that takes this disastrous situation seriously is a multi-disciplinarian group of doctors at UCLA. Dr. Meghan Agarwal, a cardiologist, employs the word POTS to describe the vast symptomatology that many of these sufferers express. The brain is most often affected since people describe their inability to think clearly and concisely. This, I would say, is the most common complaint. Many of you reading this, who suffered the virus, talk about OLFACTORY problems. You lost your ability to smell.

Scientists finally realized why this occurred since this patented virus attacks the nervous system’s neurons and derogate the lining of tissue that registers and perceives fragrance. Weakened immune systems are the 2nd obvious malady that may be expressed by having more health problems via colds or even formidable diseases. When checked, we are now clear that the cerebrospinal fluid includes exceptionally high amounts of proteins associated with inflammation. This means that your army of immune cells is working in the area of the nervous system rather than fighting microbes and mutagens that require immune cell adversaries. We have seen many of our alumni who have been well for years until the virus and/or its supposed antidotes presented itself. Another symptom that we observe is lingering virus; this is where people seem to have never gotten over the initial contamination. What has been discovered is this covid strain observed through neuropsychiatric symptoms appears in small packages in the brain and opens themselves as long as three months after the initial infection. This means the bug persists in the central nervous system for a long time. Another study found genetic material from the virus in patients’ brains almost 8 months after experiencing their first symptoms. A more hidden and technical observation has been a macrophage attack. This is from autopsies of people who have reportedly died from the virus. Macrophage precursor cells and red blood cells work within the cellular lining to protect healthy brain neurons and astrocytes. When the virus attacks the lining, it rips open the walls that buffer the neurons and astrocytes, which creates a kill-off of neurons inflaming the brain.

All of this is strange, unexpected, and disheartening. I think it is time that we go back and ask the institutions that patented this virus what their objective was and, more importantly, what they can do to create viable remedies for those suffering from their manufactured creation. We must understand that you cannot patent a natural virus. Dr. Martin, the CEO and Leader of ACAM, clearly announced to the world that there are organizations, governments, and institutions over the last quarter of a century that have manifested a microbe that would not exist with nature and certainly not come from doing a perverted thing like eating a bat. Long covid should give each of us time to reflect on what humanity has just been put through over the last few years, asking the questions, how, why, and more importantly, who? If you are suffering from any symptoms described, here at Hippocrates wellness west Palm beach, we have methods and practices that have proven effective in addressing this universal disorder. If you want to once and for all leave this nightmare behind, it would be wise to fully engage and embrace this lifestyle combined with nutrient and energy medicine treatments.

[beelatsstuff]

i consider my cuts as tattoos and I have used various sharp objects to cut myself, including a pen, a dart, a cutter, a scissor, a knife, a razor, and a blade. Perhaps it is the fact that it is like a tattoo, and when you get a tattoo, macrophages from your immune system will rise up to the surface and eat away any rust, ink, or other substances that have been applied to my skin. This process is like trying to kill the foreign object, and the macrophages will eventually die. and now i have fucking idk bumps?!!? On my skin, warts idrk..

(maybe i am just making up things and you should call me out for it thnx)

[moonsofmachinery]

@stupidscav HELLO HELLO FELLOW MICROBIO LOVER!!! You're close with some of the names! Macro DOES mean big, and phage IS eat (although its more similar to 'a thing that eats'! Bursa is not bursaria though! its actually what the B in B-Cell means as all of my little guys are based off of specific microorganisms MAMA -> Mamavirus (A large, like- REALLY large virus that is known to infect protists like amoeba!) Sputnik -> Virophage (Virophages that infect Mamaviruses, Sputnik is a name for a specific kind of them if i remember correctly!) Phage -> Bacteriophage (A virus that specifically hunts Bacteria, known for being the 'class pet' of microbiology) (Ur right about the root Phage being eat! Bacteriophage is just commonly shortened to Phage in the Immuno world!) Bac -> Bacteria (YEAH you got this one right!) Neutra -> Neutrophil (You were on the dot! Neutro means Neutral! Although, its an odd name to give to a cell known for exploding itself to kill bacteria...) Axon -> Dendritic Cell (The joke with Axon's name is that Dendritic Cells are named because they look like Dendrites on a nerve cell, An Axon is also a part of a nerve cell!) Macro -> Macrophage (Quite literally A big thing that devours! Macropages are the janitors of the immune system, cleaning up cells that have committed apoptosis and also consuming invaders when need be... big guys.) Bursa -> B-Cell (You were a little far off with this one, Bursa is not short for Bursaria, although I see where that came from. B-Cells were originally named after the Bursa in a bird where B-Cells are produced, although its more common for them to be called Bone-Marrow Derived Cells (B-Cells still) nowadays!) Thyme -> T-Cell (Thyme as in Thymus-Cell! The thymus is little murder college where Immature T-Lymphocytes go to mature!) NK -> Natural Killer Cell (Cancer? Never heard of her) Eo is named after Eosinophils and Baso after Basophils, we actually know surprisingly little about them other than that they're involved in keeping parasites away and causing allergies! Fun! Ahhh sorry for rambling though I am so so in love with Microbio / Immuno so having someone respond in kind made me go!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!! AGH!!!!! HAVE A GREAT DAY!!

something something immunology special interest fueled local group!!! tumblr killed the quality so closeups below!!!

yahoo!! lookit them all!

[mars-ipan]

hey guys what’s ur favorite thing to research

[silcell]

hmm okay since alot of people sound interested I will share the others from my furry au since it would take forever to create art of everyone

Also as a brief note all antigens are exactly the same as canon only the cells are furries

Neutrophils = Wolves

This just makes sense considering how they track down antigens and get all feral and sometimes gang up on one particular antigen, feels very much like wolf pack behavior to me

RBCs = Horses

They go around the whole body hauling and carrying large bulky items along with other things, so it felt fitting to assign them an animal that can deal with that weightload. Plus they run from danger so basically a stampede

Normal Cells = Standard Household Cats

Not too much thought was put into this but seeing how they're at home all day usually a friend and I just decided to assign them all as cats. Usually just simple short-haired tabby cats too nothing fancy since they all look similar to each other

Cancer cell, however, has a bi colored coat (brown and white) that is extremely desaturated for the sake of looking ill and definitely not the norm. I have WIP art of him that I'll probably post later to show this.

Platelets = Red Pandas

I don't think I put much thought into this other than red pandas are silly and cute and so are platelets. What if i-

Eosinophil = Maned Wolves

So in this au I wanted to keep up the pattern of most immune cells being canines in some way so I looked up what other canines are there besides the obvious and felt like maned wolves fit her most. They look awkward and nervous but are still predators; Eosinophil was doubted by many but she still showed everyone her skills as an immune cell in the end

Macrophages = Hyenas

Okay so I really enjoy this one because it just feels so right but hyenas have a matriarchal society and are pretty badass.... just like a macrophage! And they eat alot which I remember the manga saying that macrophages eat alot too

Killer T Cells = Rottweilers

So I'm not really the biggest fan of them all but I think color wise these dogs fit them pretty well, and if trained they can be scary as shit which is essentially what that boot camp was doing to all the lymphocyte trainees

NK Cell = Black Jaguar

She's described as a loner and I'm pretty sure these big cats spend most of their days alone so you can see my connection there. And seeing how she is more agile in combat it felt right to make her a big cat instead of following my pattern of immune cells being canines

B Cell = Shiba Inu

This was thought up more by my friend than me, but their line of reasoning was just that B Cell has the same silly spunky energy as shiba inus :]

Dendritic Cell = Ferret

My reasoning is that they both look cute and charming but can totally be a little shit. Look at the cytokine chapter .

Any other cell is undecided at the moment because they are just characters me and my friend think about way less often v_v I'll update this when we come up with new assignments!

[lazyflan]

So I just saw this post by @tylermh1987 and in my sleep-deprived mind an idea was born, so I'm writing this short thing before going to sleep, of course all credits go to the original post!

How would it be if social media existed in cells at work, bc I feel it would be hilarious. I centered more in the idea of instagram but I also put some ideas of them having normal phone apps

-The macrophages have a cooking instagram, wher they post images of the bacteria de eat, they have lotss of neutrophil followers

-Killer T probably has a gym insta account, he post whenever he is training, he gets in fights with NK cell in their insta stories, everyone knows when they are fighting

-I feel like memory cell would either have a book-centered insta, where he informs about germs and their dangers, or its a full on "The end of the world is soon" type of insta

-The neutrophil squad having a shared acc where they post funny things that happen during fights or memes

-3803 constantly having her GPS on is probably my favourite idea, she lives with a map app open on her phone

-I feel like B cell has a tiktok acc that's kind of popular

-Neutrophil squad having a youtube acc where they prank each other or try to get reactions about different things (Example, trying to make 1146 flustered with 3803)

-Eosinophil being a bad bitch in social media is something I didn't know I needed until I thought about it

[antihumanism]

A macrophage really will just see something weird and immediately eat it and then go to the lymph node and vomit the digested thing back up to show off to the other cells. Evolution should not have encouraged such rude behavior.