Lymphocytes are special human cells belonging to the group of white blood cells. They belong to the so-called white blood cells. Their core is very large. They are produced in the bone marrow, and in embryos - not only in the bone marrow, but also in the liver and stem cells. It is important that the norm of lymphocytes is observed in the body - their number and ratio with similar cells. It is lymphocytes that are the main strength of the body, struggling with all kinds of invasions from the outside - harmful bacteria and viruses. This is the importance of such cells, and if lymphocytes are lowered, this can be both a danger to the body in itself, because its protection is reduced, and an alarming sign that indicates that the patient is not doing well. Lymphocytes not only fight against the "invaders", but also produce antibodies that can then resist infections.
There is a well-defined norm of lymphocytes. An adult should have from a thousand to three thousand lymphocytes per microliter of blood. If we take the ratio between lymphocytes and other leukocytes, in other words - the leukocyte formula, then the lymphocytes should occupy from twenty to thirty-five percent. Only two percent of the total number of lymphocytes travel with the blood throughout the body, and all the rest are in the bone tissue.
In children, the norm of lymphocytes is much higher. For a baby who is not even four days from the moment of birth, the norm of lymphocytes is from 22 to 25 percent. A child who has completed a week since birth may have 40-42%. If the child is not six years old, then his norm is 60-65%. As soon as the child is six years old and up to eighteen years old, the norm of lymphocytes already corresponds to the norm of an adult.
If in adults the content in the blood of lymphocytes is less than 1.0 * 109 / l, then this condition is scientifically called lymphocytopenia. If the lymphocytes are lowered, lymphocytopenia can be divided into two main varieties: absolute or relative. The indicators of each of these varieties of lymphocytopenia have their own significance. If the lymphocytes are lowered in the leukoformula, and their amount in the blood is normal, we are talking about relative lymphocytopenia. Relative lymphocytopenia is an indicator of inflammatory diseases that are accompanied by an increased number of neutrophils in the blood. It can be pneumonia or a certain type of purulent inflammation. If the lymphocytes are lowered in the blood, this condition is called absolute lymphocytopenia. The cause may be HIV, in which the lymphocytes die. However, more often, lowered lymphocytes in the blood are a sign of diseases in which the blood-forming sprouts are suppressed.
It often happens that lymphocytes in pregnant women are lowered. The reason is simple: if not for this, the female white cells responsible for the study of substances entering the body would block the father’s genes, as a result of which pregnancy would be simply impossible or would go with complications, and the baby would be born painful, very weak. However, if the norm of lymphocytes in women who have recently become pregnant is violated, then this is not a simple lymphocytopenia, but a special process in which the lymphocytes responsible for inhibiting the immune response are activated and increase in number, and those that fight foreign organisms are partially inhibited first, their number is reduced. While T-heller lymphocytes are lowered, T-suppressors are increased.
However, if the number of white cells responsible for the immune response is reduced in a pregnant woman, this does not mean that the body of the future mother is not protected in any way, because the inhibition of part of the lymphocytes is replaced by activation of neutrophil cells with the production of phagocytes. By the way, if a pregnant woman does not have lowered helper lymphocytes with an increase in suppressor lymphocytes, then hellers that meet foreign substances penetrate the placenta, actually killing the fetus in the womb, which causes the abortion and miscarriage. But today, scientists have found a way out of this situation. In order for the pregnant helper lymphocytes to be lowered, often with the consent of her husband, the future father, the pregnant woman is immunized with her husband's suppressors, which normalizes the pregnancy process.