Where do they go?

[Kjohnsonmay]

During a recent hospitalization for a complicated endocrine crisis, my WBC would jump

from 80,000 one day to 117,000 the next, down to 78,000 the next and back up to 110,000.

I understand the body sends out lymphocytes in time of stress. Question....do the cells migrate back to bone marrow, spleen, etc? How can such fluctuation be explained?

Thank you for your thoughts.

Karen May

CLL

Dx 12/07,

W&W

IVIG monthly

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

Hi Karen

We make millions, some say a billions, of white blood cells a day. Most live for a bit and then commit suicide , called apoptosis, and die and pass out of our bodies.

Some B lymphocytes turn into plasma cells and others remain with us to produce antibodies to recognize pathogens etc.

CLL B cells, do die it has been found, but they are somewhat slower, so the raised absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) indicates an imbalance in the immune system. It has also been found that CLL patients with more progressive disease, have a higher rate of cell production and turn over...

Here is a good video, that simply explains th process...

m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Z36...