All Things Biology

Daily writing prompt

Are you holding a grudge? About?

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I don’t tend to hold grudges but you know what do… memory cells!

You may be thinking what is a memory cell?

Memory cells (also called lymphocytes) are part of the specific immune response. They remain in the bloodstream after primary infection and effectively ‘remember’ the pathogen (you could say they hold a grudge!). This means that when the pathogen infects the host for a second time the memory cells recognise the pathogen and multiply rapidly producing large numbers of lymphocyte cells which are specific to that pathogen (hence this is called the specific immune response). By doing this the response is stronger and faster than the non-specific immune response.

This can be applied in the use of vaccines! By being exposed to a dormant or dead version of a pathogen via vaccination you experience a non-specific immune response without all the nasty symptoms of the infection itself. This results in the production of memory cells so when you next encounter the virus you’re much less likely to become infected.

So we should probably be thankful for the grudges our memory cells hold!