• Question: Where do white blood cells get food and energy from?

    Asked by Asier Garcia to Carmen, Daniel, Laura, Noel, Steph on 12 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Pablito.
    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      Hi Asier,

      Great question. Where do ANY of our cells get food and energy from…? White blood cells or WBC’s (also called leukocytes) get energy the same way any other cells in our body get energy – these highly energy-demanding immune cells use glucose as a main source of fuel.

      Cheers!

      Carmen

    • Photo: Noel Carter

      Noel Carter answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      They get it from blood like all cells in the body

Comments

  • Photo: Asier Garcia

    Asier Garcia commented on :

    But as they are flowing in the bloodstream they are not attached to capillaries like other cells. Do they just pass through the liver grab some glucose and go?

  • Photo: Carmen

    Carmen commented on :

    Hi Asier,

    So the blood cells are all circulating around our body/through the blood stream as other cells. I’d assume just like any other cell, white blood cells would at a cellular level get the energy through its mitochondria. It would ingest simple sugars (when above when I mentioned glucose) to run through cellular respiration and thus get energy in the form of ATP through their mitochondria. This is what I think is the case at least!

    Cheers,
    Carmen 🙂