Posted by For my steam project I chose to look at the white blood cells in out body and how they function. More specifically I looked at the lymphocytes, and how they were affected in a healthy individual vs an individual that has leukemia.
White Blood Cell Impacts with Leukemia
Rylee did an exceptional job at explaining what the presence of abnormal white blood cells, more commonly known as leukemia cells, do to the body, and effectively covered the following objective from unit ten, “Describe the various WBC’s and their functions.”
Rylee explained that unlike other cancers, leukemia is a type of cancer that originates in bone marrow and affects the blood. The leukemia cells multiply rapidly, increasing lymphocyte count in the blood, and crowd out the healthy red and white blood cells, as well as platelets. This results in less oxygen being carried around the body to tissues and organs (red blood cells), vulnerability to infections and viruses (abnormal white cells), and inability to blood clot (platelets). However, a person without leukemia cells will have a balanced and functional white blood cell count that won’t interfere with other blood cells and their contribution to the immune system.