Anatom3DMonocytes & macrophages
Monocyti et macrophagi · Monocyty a makrofágy
Lymphatic & immune
Looks like
The largest white cells, with a kidney-shaped nucleus; in the tissues they grow into macrophages.
What it does
Swallow germs, dead cells and debris and show fragments to T cells to direct the immune response.
Keeping it well
Chronic inflammation keeps them active; in artery walls they fill with cholesterol and form plaques.
Related conditions
- Acute leukaemia (AML & ALL)
- African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
- Aplastic anaemia & marrow failure
- Chronic leukaemia (CML & CLL)
- Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
- Dehydration & electrolyte disorders
- Delirium
- Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
- Diabetic ketoacidosis
- Disseminated intravascular coagulation
- Ebola virus disease
- G6PD deficiency (favism)
- Haemophilia & bleeding disorders
- Hereditary spherocytosis
- High cholesterol
- Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
- Maternal (puerperal) sepsis
- MRSA and resistant staph infection
- Myelodysplastic syndromes
- Neonatal sepsis
- Neutropenic sepsis
- Postpartum haemorrhage
- Scrub typhus & rickettsial infections
- Sepsis
- Shock (circulatory failure)
- Toxic shock syndrome
- Typhoid & cholera
- Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies
- Vitamin D deficiency
- Von Willebrand disease