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Blood · Chapter 6 of 7
Her flares bring a surge of neutrophils and nothing ever grows. This chapter builds the leukocytes in anatomy’s words — margination, diapedesis, chemotaxis; granulocytes and agranulocytes; the five cellsThe basic structural and functional units of life. on the site’s own smears in ten seconds each; the marrow where B cells mature and plasma cellsImmune cells that develop from B cells and produce antibodies. retire — and reads a sterile neutrophilia as the blood’s version of the plaques in her skinThe body’s largest organ, providing protection and regulation..
The question you will answer
A high neutrophil count usually means bacteria. Her flares produce exactly that pattern and exactly nothing grows. Are her neutrophils defective, is there a hidden infection — or are they answering a signal that has nothing to do with a germ?
Opener · Leaving the Bloodstream · about 1¾ minutes
The opener is the same narrated animation you will watch in Scene 1.
Watch the opener first. It sets the question; the chapter answers it.
1
Read the chart
Patient chart · Stina
2015 · age 40 · the white cells, at a flare and between
Flare
WBC 11,800/µL (4,800–10,800): neutrophils 78% (9,200 absolute), bands 6%; lymphocytes 15%; monocytes 5%; eosinophils 1%; basophils 1%. No toxic granulation; no blasts.
Between flares
WBC 6,900: neutrophils 58%, lymphocytes 32%, monocytes 7%, eosinophils 2%, basophils 1%. Normal.
Cultures
Blood ×2, urineThe liquid waste excreted by the kidneys., throat during the flare: no growthAn increase in size and number of cells.. Procalcitonin low.
Marrow
Normocellular; myeloid:erythroid 2:1; plasmaThe liquid component of blood. cells 6%, clonal by flow cytometry (kappa-restricted) — the source of the M-spike; no lymphoma.
History
Module 5: tender plaques packed with neutrophils and no organismA living individual made up of cells. — Sweet syndrome.
Told
“Probably a viral thing. Come back if it happens again.” (It had happened for thirty years.)
Chart clues this module: 1–5 · earlier chapters · 6 · this chapter
Before you go on · your prediction
Neutrophils 78% with bands at every flare, cultures negative every time, normal between. The surge is…
Open the one you lean toward. Nothing is recorded and nothing is revealed — you come back to it at the end.
A hidden infection the cultures keep missing
Ask what a neutrophil is attracted to — bacteria, or the chemical signals of inflammation — and what procalcitonin and thirty years of negative cultures say.
Defective neutrophils that over-respond
Ask what the cells look like (no toxic granulation, no blasts), what they do between flares, and whether a defect would switch itself off every month.
Normal neutrophils answering an internal alarm — the same recruitment that filled her Sweet-syndrome plaques
Ask which cytokine recruits neutrophils, where else it has acted in her story, and what “sterile” neutrophilia means for the question you ask next.
From Stina’s diary
2
The story
Three short movements: the case, the anatomyThe study of the structure of the human body. and physiologyThe study of how the body functions., then the tie back to Stina. Each links to the scene where you’ll see it move.
I · The only complete cells, and how they leave
Leukocytes are the only formed elementsThe cellular components of blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. that are complete cells — nucleusThe control center of the cell that contains DNA and directs cellular activities., organellestructures within a cell that perform specialized functions., the lot — under one percent of blood volume, 4,800 to 10,800 per microlitre; above 11,000 is leukocytosis, usually the system working, which is exactly why hers was dismissed; below the range is leukopenia. Blood is only their transport. When tissue is injured or infected, cytokines make the endotheliumThe innermost layer of blood vessels, composed of simple squamous epithelial cells, which reduces fr display selectins and integrins; passing leukocytes slow, roll and stick — margination — squeeze between endothelial cells, diapedesis, and follow a chemokine gradient toward the trouble, positive chemotaxis, OpenStax’s chemical 911 call. The notes split them two ways. By structure: granulocytes — neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils — with visible granules and lobed nucleiClusters of neurons in the CNS responsible for processing information.; agranulocytes — lymphocytes, monocytes. By job: innate cells, fast and generic; the adaptive lymphocyte, slow the first time, specific, and able to remember. In order of abundance, never let monkeys eat bananas: neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil.
See it move: Scene 1 · Leaving the Bloodstream · Scene 2 · Two Splits, Five Cells
II · Five cells on slide 86X, in ten seconds each
The neutrophil, fifty to seventy percent, 10 to 12 micrometres, a nucleus in two to five lobes like a string of beads — the poly; a young one has a band nucleus, a hypersegmented one signals B12 deficiency — with fine lilac granules of lysozyme and defensins: the EMT, attracted to inflammation and bacteria. (The lecture’s line that neutrophils record pathogens in their DNA is a slip.) The eosinophil, two to four percent, bilobed like sunglasses, bright orange granules, built for worms and allergy. The basophil, under one percent, purple-black granules of histamine and heparin that hide the nucleus — the cell your antihistamine is aimed at. The lymphocyte, twenty to thirty percent, the size of a red cell, a round dark nucleus with a thin rim of cytoplasmThe gel-like substance within a cell that contains organelles and cytosol.; T, B and NK cells look identical on a smear — the T cell kills, the B cell becomes a plasma cell and makes antibodies. The monocyte, two to eight percent, the largest at 12 to 20 micrometres, a kidney-shaped nucleus in grey-blue cytoplasm; it becomes a macrophage or a dendritic cell, and both present antigen. The decision tree: nucleus or not; then granules; then colour and size.
See it move: Scene 3 · Neutrophils, the First Responders · Scene 4 · Eosinophils, Basophils, Lymphocytes, Monocytes
III · Where they are made, where B cells grow up — and a surge with no germ
Leukopoiesis runs on colony-stimulating factors and interleukins; the myeloid line makes four of the five, the lymphoid line the fifth. Too many is leukemia — the marrow’s finite space taken by cancerous white cells, so anemiaA condition characterized by a deficiency of red blood cells or hemoglobin, leading to reduced oxyge, bleeding and infection arrive together — or mononucleosis, a virus and a flood of agranulocytes. The marrow page adds the piece this case needs: the marrow is a primary lymphoid organ where B cells assemble their receptorA structure that detects stimuli. and are deleted if they bind self; and long-lived plasma cells, with clock-face chromatinDNA and associated proteins in a loose, uncondensed form inside the nucleus. and a pale perinuclear hof, retire there and secrete antibody for decades. Six percent of hers are one clone, kappa-restricted — the cell writing the M-spike. Now her flare. Neutrophils 78 percent with bands, cultures sterile, procalcitonin low, the count back to normal in a month: a sterile neutrophilia. Nothing is wrong with her neutrophils. They are attracted to inflammation, not to bacteria, and her disease makes the signal on its own — interleukin-1β — the same recruitment that packed the plaques of her Sweet syndrome, now in blood instead of dermisThe thick inner layer of the skin that contains blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue.. When neutrophils surge and nothing grows, the question is not what bug but what alarm.
See it move: Scene 5 · The Marrow, the Clone, and a Surge With No Germ
3
Watch · explore · think · check
5 scenes. Each one has a short animation or a slide, something to explore, a true/false spot-check of your thinking, and a quick check. Every scene gives you an evidence card for your board.
How to read the scenes
- Animation (dark teal) — a short animated explainer, one idea each
- Slide (dark teal) — a still to study: a micrograph, a diagram or a map
- Explore (purple) — something to push on while you watch
- Game (purple) — a quick challenge
- Think (gold) — reason it out, then spot-check yourself with a few true/false questions; not graded
- Check (gold) — a quick H5P that scores itself
Scene 1 of 5
Leaving the Bloodstream
Margination, diapedesis, chemotaxis — the vessel wall flags the exit; white cells are recruited, not wandering.
Animation · in production · 1 min 40 s
Leaving the Bloodstream
A capillary beside injured tissue; cytokines reach the endothelium; selectins and integrins appear; a neutrophil slows, rolls, sticks (margination); squeezes between endothelial cells (diapedesis); follows the chemokine gradient (chemotaxis) to the site. The counts: 4,800–10,800; leukocytosis above 11,000; leukopenia below. Then the same sequence with no bacterium at the far end — IL-1β alone — and the neutrophils come anyway. Caption: attracted to inflammation, not to bacteria.
Prefer the full lecture? Leukocytes (original video on the site) · histology page: Blood Histology hub
Explore
Set the gradient
A capillary wall you can decorate and a tissue you can seed. Place a bacterium, IL-1β or nothing and predict the neutrophil’s trip, then predict four patients’ blood counts and match her flare.
Text description of this explore
A tiled-endothelium look. Step 1: a capillary wall drawn as a row of teal tiles (endothelial cells), blood with red cells above and tissue below, and a neutrophil in the blood at the left. Choose what to seed in the tissue (a bacterium; IL-1β alone, no germ; or nothing) and where (under the left, middle or right tiles); three buttons load each seed. Predict what happens (selectins appear over the source and the neutrophil sticks there, squeezes through and crawls to the source; selectins appear all along the wall and it sticks anywhere and wanders; or no selectins and it tumbles past in the blood), then run it. The drawing shows the chemokine gradient as dashed rings, purple selectins on the tiles above the source, the neutrophil rolling, squeezing between two tiles and following the gradient, or tumbling past; a readout lists the selectins, the neutrophil’s path, what it finds and what a culture of the tissue grows. Step 2: four teaching-model patients (bacterial pneumonia; a gout flare, with urate crystals, IL-1β and no germ; a head cold; a quiet month). For each, choose the blood count (in range with neutrophils about 50–70%; high with neutrophils up and bands; or normal or low with lymphocytes the bigger share) and what the culture grows and procalcitonin does (a germ, procalcitonin high; or nothing, procalcitonin low). After you commit, stacked bars show each patient’s differential: pneumonia 16,500 with neutrophils 84% (bands 10); gout flare 12,200, neutrophils 76% (bands 3); head cold 5,400, neutrophils 42%, lymphocytes 46%; quiet month 7,000, neutrophils 60%, lymphocytes 30% (made-up numbers). Step 3: her real 2015 counts as stacked bars: at the flare WBC 11,800 (her lab’s range 4,800–10,800), neutrophils 78% with bands 6% among them, lymphocytes 15%, monocytes 5%, eosinophils 1%, basophils 1%; a month later 6,900, neutrophils 58%, lymphocytes 32%, monocytes 7%, eosinophils 2%, basophils 1%; cultures (blood twice, urine, throat) grew nothing and procalcitonin was low. Choose which run matches her flare: a bacterial infection the cultures keep missing; a virus, “probably a viral thing”; a sterile signal like the gout flare, IL-1β laying the gradient; or nothing, the count being close enough to normal.
Think · not graded
Neutrophils follow a chemical gradient; they cannot tell whether a bacterium or a cytokine laid it. Procalcitonin rises with bacterial infection and not with sterile inflammation. If hers is low at every flare, what has the gradient been laid by — and what did “probably viral” miss for thirty years?
Spot-check your thinking: true or false?
Check · Multiple Choice
What is the name for a white cell squeezing between endothelial cells to leave the bloodstream?
Evidence card 1
Add it to your evidence board
Recruited, not wandering: a neutrophil follows a gradient whether a germ laid it or not.
Scene 2 of 5
Two Splits, Five Cells
Granule or no granule at the microscope; innate or adaptive in the clinic — and a mnemonic for the order.
Slide · in production
The Leukocytes on Slide 86X
Granules first, then nucleus and size — a decision tree you can run in ten seconds.
Prefer the full lecture? Leukocytes (original video on the site) · histology page: Blood Histology: A Guided Journey
Game
The ten-second ID
A field guide to slide 86X. Name five cells in ten seconds each, split eight cells two ways, count a hundred-cell differential before the tally, then spring the Journey’s trap.
Text description of this game
A field-guide look with round microscope fields cut from the site’s slide 86X micrographs. Step 1: five unlabeled cells, each in a round field among pink red cells: cell 1, the largest, about twice a red cell, with a kidney-shaped nucleus in gray-blue cytoplasm and no visible granules; cell 2, about one and a half red cells, pale lilac speckled cytoplasm and a nucleus in several lobes joined by strands; cell 3, a little wider than a red cell, packed with dark purple-black granules that hide the nucleus; cell 4, a little wider than a red cell, almost filled by a round dark nucleus with a thin blue rim; cell 5, about one and a half red cells, coarse orange-red granules around a two-lobed nucleus. For each, choose its name (neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil, lymphocyte, monocyte) and its width against the red cells (about one, about one and a half, two or more); the name appears under each field when you commit. Step 2: eight cells (neutrophil, eosinophil, basophil, monocyte, T or B lymphocyte, NK cell, macrophage, plasma cell) to sort into granulocyte and innate, agranulocyte and innate, or agranulocyte and adaptive. Step 3: a field of 100 white cells drawn as small glyphs, red cells left out; choose the field (her flare, 2015; between flares, 2015; a head cold, teaching model), count by eye, predict the split (neutrophils over 70 with lymphocytes under 20; neutrophils 50–70 with lymphocytes 20–40; lymphocytes the largest share), then tally. Each lymphocyte, monocyte, eosinophil, basophil and band is circled, a key names the glyphs, and a readout gives every count, the granulocyte-to-agranulocyte split and the absolute neutrophil count (her flare: 78 neutrophils with 6 bands, 15 lymphocytes, 5 monocytes, 1 eosinophil, 1 basophil, about 9,200 neutrophils per microliter). Step 4: two cells from the Guided Journey’s trap, A with very fine lilac granules and a nucleus in three or four lobes, B with coarse orange-red granules and a two-lobed nucleus; name each (neutrophil or eosinophil) and choose what settled it (the granules, the number of lobes, or the size).
Think · not graded
One split you use at the microscope, one you use in the clinic. The monocyte is an agranulocyte and innate; the lymphocyte is an agranulocyte and adaptive. Why does the structural split not line up with the functional one — and which split does a differential actually report?
Spot-check your thinking: true or false?
Check · Multiple Choice
Sort the five leukocytes by structure and by immune layer.
Evidence card 2
Add it to your evidence board
Five cells, two splits, one order — and a differential that reports the structural split in percentages.
Scene 3 of 5
Neutrophils, the First Responders
Attracted to inflammation, not to bacteria — the distinction that is her whole story.
Slide · in production
The Neutrophil
The EMT of the blood: goes where the patient is, treats with what it carries, and does not ask who called.
Prefer the full lecture? Leukocytes (original video on the site) · histology page: Neutrophils
Explore
Count the lobes
Slide 86X with a lobe counter. Count and sort six neutrophils, shift a lobe histogram left and right, then read her flare smear like a hematologist.
Text description of this explore
A stain-tray look, slide glass on a Wright-stain rack. Step 1: six neutrophils, four drawn and two cut from the site’s slide 86X micrograph (page 270): A, drawn, two lobes on a thread; B, the upper cell on slide 86X; C, drawn, one thick curved nucleus of even width; D, drawn, six lobes; E, the lower cell on slide 86X; F, drawn, five lobes. For each, choose band (young, one curved unsegmented nucleus), segmented (mature, 2–5 lobes) or hypersegmented (6 or more), and the number of lobes you count (1 to 7). After you commit the lobes are numbered. Step 2: a histogram of neutrophils per 100 by lobe count (band, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or more), with a dashed outline for a quiet week. Choose whose smear (a quiet week; bacterial pneumonia, day 2; a gout flare, day 1, IL-1β with no germ; Maude, B12 deficiency), predict whether it shifts left (more bands, fewer lobes), right (more lobes, some hypersegmented) or stays, then run it; bars appear and a readout gives bands and 6-plus-lobed cells per 100, the most common class and what it reads (teaching model). Step 3: her flare smear, bands 6% of her white cells, segmented neutrophils mostly 3–4 lobes, no blasts; choose what a hematologist reads (a healthy marrow answering a loud call, a reactive left shift; B12 deficiency; leukemia; defective neutrophils that cannot finish maturing). Step 4: two drawn neutrophils, A with ordinary fine lilac granules and B with toxic granulation, coarse dark granules; choose what “no toxic granulation” adds to her report.
Think · not graded
Bands mean the marrow is releasing neutrophils early — a left shift — because something is calling loudly. Hers show bands at every flare and no organism ever. Which cytokine of her disease calls neutrophils, where did you first see it do so in this course, and what name did the dermatologist give the result?
Spot-check your thinking: true or false?
Check · Multiple Choice
Select every phrase that is genuinely true of neutrophils.
Evidence card 3
Add it to your evidence board
Neutrophils with bands and no germ: the blood’s version of the plaques in her skin.
Scene 4 of 5
Eosinophils, Basophils, Lymphocytes, Monocytes
Bright orange, dense purple, a nucleus that fills the cell, the largest cell that leaves at once.
Slide · in production
The Other Four, on Their Own Pages
The monocyte changes its name when it leaves; the lymphocyte changes its job when it meets its antigen.
Prefer the full lecture? Leukocytes (original video on the site) · histology page: Lymphocytes · Monocytes
Game
Four ID cards
Four badges, four micrographs, five blanks each. Issue each badge before its details appear, match four charts to four stories, then settle the Journey’s two look-alike pairs by one feature each.
Text description of this game
An ID-badge look on embassy navy. Step 1: four badges, each with a round microscope field cut from the site’s slide 86X micrographs and five blank fields (size, nucleus, granules, job, raised by): badge 1, a cell about the size of a red cell almost filled by a round dark nucleus with a thin blue rim; badge 2, coarse orange-red granules around a two-lobed nucleus; badge 3, a large cell, about twice a red cell, with a folded nucleus in gray-blue cytoplasm; badge 4, coarse purple-black granules hiding the nucleus. For each, choose the name (eosinophil, basophil, lymphocyte, monocyte) and the job (worms and allergy; histamine and heparin; antibodies or killing; becomes a macrophage; eats bacteria first). After you commit each badge fills in: eosinophil, 10–12 µm, two lobes like sunglasses, coarse orange-red granules, raised by parasites, allergies and asthma; basophil, 8–10 µm, nucleus hidden, purple-black granules of histamine and heparin, raised in allergic states; lymphocyte, small 6–9 µm or large 10–14 µm, round dark nucleus, no visible granules, raised by viral infections such as mononucleosis; monocyte, 12–20 µm, kidney-shaped nucleus, gray-blue cytoplasm, raised by chronic infections such as tuberculosis. Step 2: four teaching-model differentials in percent: chart P, WBC 10,400, neutrophils 50, lymphocytes 22, monocytes 7, eosinophils 20, basophils 1; chart Q, 7,800, neutrophils 57, lymphocytes 28, monocytes 7, eosinophils 7, basophils 1; chart R, 13,600, neutrophils 28, lymphocytes 60, monocytes 9, eosinophils 2, basophils 1; chart S, 9,100, neutrophils 62, lymphocytes 19, monocytes 16, eosinophils 2, basophils 1. Match each to a story (a parasite, hay fever, mononucleosis, tuberculosis) and choose the cell that gave it away; after you commit the usual ranges, the high value and the story appear. Step 3: the eosinophil and the basophil from the badges side by side; choose the one feature that settles which is which. Step 4: the lymphocyte and the monocyte side by side; choose the one feature that settles which is which.
Think · not graded
A monocyte becomes a macrophage in tissue — Kupffer cells in the liverA large organ that produces bile, detoxifies blood, and stores nutrients., alveolar macrophagesImmune cells found in the alveoli that engulf and digest pathogens, debris, and dust particles. in the lung — and macrophages are the cells that release IL-6. Where in her story has the liver’s macrophage population already mattered, and what does it make the liver do (Chapter 2)?
Spot-check your thinking: true or false?
Check · Multiple Choice
What does a monocyte become once it enters tissue?
Evidence card 4
Add it to your evidence board
Four cells with four jobs; the monocyte becomes the macrophage that sounds the liver’s alarm, and the B cell becomes the plasma cell that writes a spike.
Scene 5 of 5
The Marrow, the Clone, and a Surge With No Germ
Leukopoiesis, B cells growing up, plasma cells retiring — and a sterile neutrophilia named.
Animation · in production · 2 min
A Surge With No Germ
Leukopoiesis under CSFs and interleukins; the myeloid line’s four, the lymphoid line’s one; germinal centres. Leukemia as a space problem; mononucleosis. The marrow as a lymphoid organ: B cells assembling and testing a receptor; central tolerance; plasma cells with clock-face chromatin retiring to the marrow for decades. Her marrow: 6% plasma cells, one clone, kappa — the M-spike’s source, held for Module 22. Then the flare: IL-1β; neutrophils 78% with bands; cultures sterile; the Sweet-syndrome plaque from Module 5 beside the blood smear. Caption: one story in two languages.
Prefer the full lecture? Leukocytes (original video on the site) · histology page: Bone Marrow
Explore
Two languages
Her skin and her blood, read side by side like a two-language dictionary. Find the shared cell, seed a plaque and read the plate, count a marrow, then file each finding under the alarm or the clone.
Text description of this explore
A bilingual-dictionary look: bottle-green book cloth, cream pages. Step 1: two teaching drawings as facing pages. Left, skin from a plaque: a pink epidermis, a pale swollen layer beneath it, pink dermis with two small vessels ringed by small lilac cells with lobed nuclei, more such cells scattered between, no organisms. Right, a flare smear: red cells, five lobed lilac cells, one with a curved band-shaped nucleus, one small cell filled by a round dark nucleus, and two clusters of tiny purple dots. Eight numbered pins, each named from a list (segmented neutrophil, band neutrophil, lymphocyte, epidermis, swollen upper dermis, small blood vessel, platelets, bacteria): pin 1 a lilac cell in the dermis, pin 2 the epidermis, pin 3 the pale layer, pin 4 inside a vessel, pin 5 a lobed cell in the smear, pin 6 the band-shaped cell, pin 7 the small dark cell, pin 8 a cluster of tiny dots. Step 2: a sample on the left and a red blood-agar plate on the right. Choose the signal (a bacterium in the dermis, or IL-1β alone with no germ) and the sample (a biopsy of the plaque, or blood twice), predict what grows (colonies; no growth; it depends on whether the germ reached the blood), then culture it; the plate shows cream colonies or stays empty, and a readout lists the neutrophils, the plate and procalcitonin. Step 3: a teaching drawing of a marrow field with 100 nucleated cells, among them blue oval cells with off-center spotted nuclei and a pale patch; estimate the plasma cells (about 1, 6, 15 or 30 in 100). After you commit, gold rings mark 6. Step 4: bars for the share of marrow plasma cells carrying kappa and lambda light chains, a normal marrow about 65 and 35; predict hers if the plasma cells are one clone (all kappa; about two kappa to one lambda; both on every cell; no light chains). After you commit hers shows kappa 100%, lambda 0%. Step 5: six findings to file under the alarm (IL-1β calling neutrophils), the clone (held for the Immunity module) or both: neutrophils 78% with bands at a flare; cultures sterile with procalcitonin low; Sweet syndrome plaques packed with neutrophils and no organism; a normal count a month later; marrow plasma cells 6%, kappa-restricted; M-protein 0.6 g/dL IgG kappa.
Think · not graded
Six percent of her marrow’s plasma cells are one clone making one antibody; neutrophils flood her blood at every flare with no germ. One is held for the Immunity module and one is named here. Which is which, and what rule keeps the course from blaming the clone for the fever?
Spot-check your thinking: true or false?
Check · Multiple Choice
Explain why leukemia causes anemia, bleeding and infection at once.
Evidence card 5
Add it to your evidence board
Sterile neutrophilia named — IL-1β, the alarm — and a 6% clone held for Module 22.
4
Your evidence board
Every scene gave you an evidence card, and the chart adds more. Sort each card into the column it supports: Normal neutrophils answering an internal alarm, Neither on its own, or A hidden infection, or defective cells. Some cards can honestly go in more than one place — that’s allowed, and the feedback tells you which cards decide the case.
5
Your verdict
Time to decide. Look back at your bet, then build your verdict from statements that hold up — no writing needed.
Look back at your prediction
If her cultures are always negative, why does her white count surge at every flare?
Find the one you chose at the top. Does the evidence support it, refute it, or revise it?
- A hidden infection the cultures keep missing
- Defective neutrophils that over-respond
- Normal neutrophils answering an internal alarm — the same recruitment that filled her Sweet-syndrome plaques
Build your verdict · no writing
Choose the statement that holds in each set. The ones you keep become your argument.
6
The finding
Finding · sterile flare-time neutrophilia
One Story in Two Languages
WBC 11,800 with neutrophils 78% and bands at the flare, 6,900 and normal a month later; cultures sterile for thirty years; procalcitonin low; cells unremarkable; a marrow with 6% kappa-restricted plasma cells. Chart entry: nothing is wrong with her neutrophils — they are attracted to inflammation, not to bacteria, and her disease makes the signal on its own; the same IL-1β recruitment that packed her Sweet-syndrome plaques, now visible in blood. The clone is a separate story, held for Module 22. When neutrophils surge and nothing grows, the question is not what bug but what alarm — and the last chapter follows that alarm into the liver.
Next · Chapter 7
The Acute-Phase Alarm
If her neutrophils surge with no germ to fight, something is sounding an alarm from the inside. That alarm runs through the liver — and it manufactures more than markers.
Reliable information on rare diseases
NORD · NIH GARD · Orphanet · MedlinePlus Genetics: FMF · FMF & AID Global Association · Autoinflammatory Alliance · Global Genes · Amyloidosis Foundation
Stina has one rare disease. In the United States, about 1 in 10 people live with one of the more than 7,000 known rare diseases. These organizations are where patients, families and clinicians go for trustworthy information.
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All pages for Module 14 — Blood
14.0 Module Overview
14.1 The Red Cell Finding That Fits Nothing
14.2 What’s in Blood
14.3 Red Cells and Hemoglobin
14.4 Making and Recycling Red Cells
14.5 The Clotting Story
14.6 The Defenders
14.7 The Acute-Phase Alarm
14.8 Conclusion and Assessment
14.9 Evidence Behind the Case
All Modules
- Anatomical Language, Membranes & Homeostasis
- Just Enough Chemistry
- The Cell & Its Transport
- Making Cells & Proteins
- The Integumentary System
- The Skeletal System
- The Muscular System
- Nervous Tissue & the Senses
- The Spinal Cord
- The Brain & the Blood–Brain Barrier
- The Autonomic Nervous System
- Special Senses (in developmentThe process of growth and differentiation.)
- The Endocrine System
- Blood
- The Heart
- Blood Vessels
- The Digestive System
- The Respiratory System
- The Urinary System
- Fluids, Electrolytes & Acid–Base Balance
- The Reproductive System
- The Immune System
List of terms
- cells
- plasma cells
- skin
- urine
- growth
- plasma
- organism
- anatomy
- physiology
- formed elements
- nucleus
- organelles
- endothelium
- nuclei
- cytoplasm
- anemia
- receptor
- chromatin
- dermis
- liver
- alveolar macrophages
- development