• Question: How many white blood cells can be produced a second

    Asked by aadil to Carmen, Daniel, Laura, Noel, Steph on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Vatore_8.
    • Photo: Noel Carter

      Noel Carter answered on 6 Mar 2015:

      The blood system in a normal adult human has between 4 and 10 times 10 to the power 9 (4-10,000,000,000) and there is a dynamic turnover of cells so in a second several hundred thousand or more are dying and dividing.

      However the time for an individual cell is much longer from hours to days depending on the type of cell. Also if you have an infection for example then the rate at which cells divide and grow speeds up.

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