Just watch the macrophage as it battles bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. Description below. FIXED MACROPHAGE SIMULATOR A macrophage is a white blood cell, or leukocyte. It comes from the monocyte, which is a white blood cell that cleans up debris. When it leaves the bloodstream to attack and fight, it is called a macrophage. Its job changes - even though it still cleans up debris by eating it up, it also eats up pathogens. For this reason it is called a phagocyte. The name macrophage means big eater in Greek. There are two types of macrophages: fixed and free-floating. The free floating ones move around the bloodstream and lymphatic system and leave to go to the site of infection to eat up pathogens. The fixed ones sit around on organs to protect them. This simulator is of a fixed macrophage. It sits around and extends appendages to gobble up pathogens. It is amoeba-like, so it extends itself and pulls pathogens towards it. Then it wraps itself around it and destroys the pathogen with its lysosomes, which break it down. Macrophages can normally do this about 100 times before their organelles cannot repair their used up lysosomes anymore. click it.
