Posted by
For my steam project, I am talking about leukemia and describing how the white blood cells and their function play a role in leukemia.
Leukemia is what doctors called liquid cancer, it’s a blood cancer related to white blood cells. Leukemia evolves from cells in the bone marrow, bloodstream, and lymphatic system. There are a lot of different kinds of white blood cells in the bone marrow, bloodstream, and lymphatic system of the human body. White blood cells in the bone marrow have been analyzed to the body’s “blood factor”. Bone marrow takes up 5 percent of the body’s weight. Bone marrow produces white blood cells that escape into the blood vessels. Leukemia is a bone marrow disease that forms when abnormal white blood cells begin to continuously copy itself. As they copy and spread they slow down the production of normal blood cells in the bone marrow. This can lead to bleeding, infections, and anemia. Over a period of time leukemic cells spread through the bloodstream and continue to divide and can start forming tumors which can damage vital organs like the kidney and liver. (Harmon, 2011)
White blood cells fall into five different categories: Neutrophil, Eosinophil, Basophil, Monocyte and Lymphocyte. Neutrophil, Eosinophil, and Basophil are granulocytes. Monocytes and Lymphocytes are agranulocytes. Neutrophils have a multilobed nucleus with pale red and blue cytoplasmic granules. Neutrophils are twice the size of red blood cells. They are the most numerous white blood cells and they account for 50-70% of white blood cells. Neutrophils are known as bacteria slayers; they fight bacterial infection, acute inflammation, and tissue damage. Eosinophils have a bilobed nucleus with red cytoplasmic granules. Eosinophils account for 2-4% of all leukocytes (WBC). Eosinophils have red-staining granules that contain digestive enzymes. These enzymes play a role in parasitic worms, allergies, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. Basophils bilobed nucleus with purplish-black cytoplasmic granules. Basophils are the rarest white blood cells. They account for 0.5-1% of white blood cells. The large purplish-black cytoplasmic granules contain histamine. Histamine promotes an inflammatory chemical that acts as vasodilator and attracts white blood cells to inflamed sites of the body. Monocytes are kidney-shaped nuclei that have abundant pale and blue cytoplasm. Monocytes are the largest of all leukocytes. They account for 3-8% of all white blood cells. Monocytes leave circulation, enter tissues, and differentiate into macrophages. They activate lymphocytes to mount an immune response. Monocytes fight viral or parasitic infections, chronic inflammation, and leukemia. Lymphocytes are large spherical nuclei with a thin rim of pale blue cytoplasm. Lymphocytes are the second most numerous white blood cell. Lymphocytes are found in lymphoid tissues like the lymph nodes and spleen. There are two types of lymphocyte cells. T lymphocytes (T cells) act against virus-infected cells and tumor cells. B lymphocytes (B-cells) give rise to plasma cells which produce antibodies for the body. (Unit 10, Lecture Slide 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18.
Lymphocytes are the reason for the uncontrollable growth of leukemia. Lymphocytes cells build up in the human body creating an army of lymphocytes in the blood. Once the lymphocytes have created that army and multiplied they crowd the good cells in the body. The lymphocytes can mess up the balance of the other cell production inside the bone marrow. When lymphocytes crowd out the other normal functioning white blood cells it lowers the human body’s strength and resistance to fight disease and infections, making the body weaker. Lymphocytes can mess up the production of red blood cells as well. The disruption of red blood cells leads to anemia, problems with bleeding, and excessive bruising. The littlest cuts and bruises become major problems in people with leukemia; this is because normal blood clotting does not occur and infections are more likely in the human body. (Minal, Atul, Suralker, 2013)
Sources:
S. Khobragade, D. D. Mor and C. Y. Patil, “Detection of leukemia in microscopic white blood cell images,” 2015 International Conference on Information Processing (ICIP), Pune, India, 2015,
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7489422
Minal , J. D., Atul , K. H., & S.R, S. (n.d.). White Blood Cell Segmentation and Classification to Detect Acute Leukemia. International Journal of Emerging Trends & Technology in Computer Science (IJETTCS). https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=91b3f21cd92fac05c7d8690034a182844b0f292f
Harmon, Daniel E. Leukemia. Available from: VitalSource Bookshelf, Rosen Publishing, 2011.
Unit 10, Lymphatic and Immune System. Lecture Slide 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18.
