• Question: Are there any cells in your body that could kill you?

    Asked by 13hdav to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 19 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Hi 13hdav,
      Not normally I don’t think 13hdav but certainly if cells start to become mutated and contribute to causing cancer then these cells are obviously quite dangerous and need to be dealt with using the necessary treatment. Does this answer your question?

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Like Aoife says, I don’t think any cell that works normally could kill you, but probably any could kill you if it stopped working normally. Any cell could develop mutations to become cancerous which could definitely kill you. Cells that have important functions within organs could kill you if they stopped working normally as happens in many diseases.

    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Just to add to what Aoife and Dave said there are also diseases called autoimmune diseases. These diseases occur because the immune system starts to attack the bodies own tissue because they don’t recognise it as being from the body anymore. These diseases, like multiple sclerosis, will kill people and they are caused by cells of the immune system, like T cells, acting in ways they shouldn’t.

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