Question

State two different roles of the spleen in the human body.

Answer 1

Hint: The spleen consists of many vessels that carry and circulate fluid in our bodies. It works in close association with blood and lymph.

Complete step by step answer:
The spleen is a small organ located in the upper left region of the abdomen that means just behind our stomach and under the diaphragm. It is soft and purple and its size and weight vary among different people.

The spleen performs the main functions in our body. These functions are:
1) It acts as a filter for our blood. When blood flows through the spleen it charts performing as a quality controller by recognizing and removing the damaged or old red blood cells. the healthy blood cells pass through the spleen and continue to circulate throughout our bloodstream. The damaged blood cells were broken down in the spleen by macrophages. These macrophages are large white blood cells that are specially meant for destroying the damaged red blood cells. From the damaged or old red blood cells the spleen extracts out the useful elements such as iron and stores it in the form of bilirubin.
2) It plays an important role in our immune system too. It can pick or detect the unwanted microorganism in our blood. After detecting the invader in our bloodstream the spleen along with the lymph node jumps to action and starts creating an army of defender cells called lymphocytes. These lymphocytes produce antibodies that weaken or kill bacteria, viruses, and other invaders causing infection. The antibodies and white blood cells stop the infection from further spreading to the whole body by destroying the germs.

Note:
- In the spleen, two different types of tissues are present: the white pulp and the red pulp tissues.
- The function of the red pulp tissue is filtering the blood of antigens, microorganisms, and defective or old red blood cells.
- The function of white pulp is the production and growth of the immune system and blood cells.