As far as I know, white blood cells move independently, crawling like amoebas or “millipedes” along vessel walls to reach infection sites. They use special adhesive “legs” to move at high speeds, even swimming in liquid using molecular “paddles”. WBCs actively exit blood vessels, following chemical signals to damaged tissue.
Thorry@feddit.org 3 days ago
Most explanations you read/see about how the immuun system works do a lot of anthropomorphising unfortunately, usually because the actual processes are too complex to explain. White bloods cells don’t do anything, they are just cells, they float around. They have no agency, they have no purpose, they have no directive.
ConstantPain@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Klox@lemmy.world 3 days ago
I didn’t appreciate how much of chemistry and biology is just geometry until reading about AlphaFold. AFAIK, antigens bind because they literally “fit”. And if they don’t fit, it just slips off until the body can produce a matching geometry.