Essay Sample on Eosinophils & Neutrophils: Special White Blood Cells of the Immune System

Introduction

Eosinophils are special white blood cells together with one immune system component which is responsible for combating certain vertebrate's infections as well as the multicellular parasites (Sampson, 2000). They are hence specialized cells of the immune system since they are involved in the triggering of the inflammatory response in disorders related to allergy. On the other hand, the neutrophils are also special types of white blood cells or granulocytes responsible for protecting the bodies against infections (Sampson, 2000). They are normally the first cells to arrive at the scene in cases where one experiences bacterial infection. The following are four main questions that are important to address the two topics.

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What is the best agent used to stimulate eosinophils in vitro?

The main toxic eosinophils components are thought to be essential in the induction of the bronchial mucosal injury as well as dysfunction. The recruitment of the eosinophils into the inflammatory sites incorporates a multistep and multifactorial process involving endothelial-eosinophil interactions through the adhesion molecules as well as local generation of the chemotactic agents involved in the direction of the cell migration to the airways which are inflamed (Lopez, 2013).

How can one detect the level of eosinophils in blood by ELISA method?

In human beings, the plasma EDN levels detectable with ELISA have a close correlation with the blood eosinophil numbers. The levels of EDN, therefore, are very easy to measure using the human plasma samples. There is a need for a high-sensitivity technology in order to reliably quantify the full amount of the cytokines. Alternatively, the eosinophil levels can be checked using the diffusing methods which are normally cheap and faster.

Why is the inflammatory response alone insufficient to provide complete protection against infection?

This is because it is a non-specific and in essence, there is no long-lasting immunity generated through inflammation (Sampson, 2000). The cells responsible for the protection against inflammation, i.e. the neutrophils lack memory to aid them in mounting a stronger and also faster response to the invasion of the micro-organisms upon subsequent exposure.

How do you identify the neutrophil by flow cytometry?

This s done by screening the population of the neutrophil isolated from the blood as well as the oral rinses from the chronic and healthy periodontitis patients against the cluster of differentiation antibodies (Lakschevitz, 2016). This will display a unique surface marker set which is compared to the tissue neutrophils existing in healthy and non-inflamed tissues

References

Lakschevitz, F. S., Hassanpour, S., Rubin, A., Fine, N., Sun, C., & Glogauer, M. (2016). Identification of neutrophil surface marker changes in health and inflammation using high-throughput screening flow cytometry. Experimental cell research, 342(2), 200-209. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0014482716300465

Sampson, A. P. (2000). The role of eosinophils and neutrophils in inflammation. Clinical and experimental allergy: journal of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 30, 22-27. https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/10849470

Lopez, A. F., Williamson, D. J., Gamble, J. R., Begley, C. G., Harlan, J. M., Klebanoff, S. J., ... & Vadas, M. A. (2013). Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor stimulates in vitro mature human neutrophil and eosinophil function, surface receptor expression, and survival. The Journal of clinical investigation, 78(5), 1220-1228. http://jem.rupress.org/content/173/6/1553.abstract