White Blood Cells Can Sprout 'Legs' And Move Like Millipedes

• The current opinion is that immune cells advance like inchworms, but new findings show that the rapid movement of the white blood cells is more like that of millipedes.
• Rather than sticking front and back, folding and extending to push itself forward, the cell creates numerous tiny ‘legs’.
• Experiments showed that upon attaching to the blood vessel wall, the white blood cell legs dig themselves into the endothelium.
• Researchers found that the shear force created by the blood flow was necessary for the legs to embed themselves.
• Without the thrust of the rushing blood, the white blood cells couldn’t sense the exit signals or get to the site of the injury.

Reflection
I picked this story because I thought that it had an extremely interesting title. After reading this article I was kind of disappointed with what I got out of it. The title pretty much sums the entire thing up, although it had some detail I still wish that I would have picked a different article.It was an interesting topic and a good thing to learn. In biology we learned about white blood cells the idea of them sprouting legs is an entirely different concept.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090504094424.htm

Picture: http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2009/05/090504094424-large.jpg

Citation: Weizmann Institute of Science. "White Blood Cells Can Sprout 'Legs' And Move Like Millipedes." ScienceDaily 4 May 2009. 19 May 2010 .