Our first responders form the ‘innate’ immune system. These white blood cells work quickly and may not need to involve complex immune responses. They are also most easily helped by plant remedies.
The innate immune system is made up of a range of white blood cells known as leucocytes. There are two types: granulocytes and monocytes.
Granulocytes gobble up and breakdown particles that should not be there, including debris, foreign matter, viruses and even bacteria, digesting them inside special compartments called vesicles (which make up the granulation seen in the microscope). Neutrophils are the most numerous and are right in the frontline; they are the squaddies or PacMen of the immune system, the ones that do most of the hard work in protecting us from threats. They congregate where there is local trouble and may form ‘swollen glands’; if in a big battle they can generate pus from bacterial waste. They hang out in lymphatic tissues, lymph glands, special glands like tonsils and appendix. As we will see in other posts their battles are straightforward, without too many complications. They respond to several herbal remedies, especially locally in the throat. Eosinophils and basophils (‘Mast cells’) are more specialised granulocytes important for defence against parasites and are also involved in allergic reactions – basophils release histamine and other powerful inflammatory agents when provoked.
Monocytes also patrol the circulation. When activated by dangers they develop into big macrophages (‘big eater’ in Greek), which are able to move through the small blood vessel wall into the tissues to ingest and breakdown bacteria, recycle dead cells, and clear away debris. Dendritic cells also develop from monocytes: they are an important ‘antigen-presenting cell’ responsible for processing large foreign molecules into ‘readable’ fragments (antigens) and presenting them to the next level of the immune system the adaptive B or T cells – see below.
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