Lynn M:  What exactly happens in the body when you develop your immune system?  Do you develop more T- cells?  Do you develop fewer immature white cells?

Samuel Yamshon, MD:  Thanks so much for your question, Lynn.  I’m Dr. Sam Yamshon, and I’m the director of cellular therapy at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. I think that your question is, is a is an excellent one, and potentially a complicated one, because there are a few different ways in which we can help boost the body’s immune system.  I think that the method that people most commonly think of when they hear about boosting the immune system is by using what we call growth factor to stimulate the immune system into producing more cells.  That can happen when people’s blood counts are low following chemotherapy or for other reasons.  And what we do is we use medicines called growth factors to stimulate the bone marrow.  So, our bone marrows are the factories where our blood cells are made.  And so, they are constantly hard at work to try to make all kinds of different blood cells, white blood cells, red cells, even platelets.  And when those white blood cells, which are the part of our immune system, become low, sometimes they need a little bit of help to get going.  And so, what we do is we’re able to administer these molecules called growth factors. And what they do is those are essentially messages that go to the bone marrow and go to the factory and say, hey, we need the factory workers and the bone marrow to work harder and to produce more white blood cells.  And the factory, the bone marrow, starts to kick in and make more white blood white blood cells.  Typically, those are most commonly neutrophils, which are kind of like the foot soldier white blood cells, but it can boost all kinds of parts of the immune system.

Another way in which we can boost the immune system is if we have low levels of antibodies in our blood.  And so sometimes, especially after cancer treatments with chemotherapy or by other means, our bodies aren’t producing as much antibodies as they as they normally would.  And so what we can do is give infusions of antibodies and that is commonly known as intravenous immunoglobulin or IVIG.  And essentially, what we do in those instances is take antibodies from donors and infuse them into the body.  And that’s another way in which we can help the body protect itself, even when the immune system is low.  Thank you again, Lynn, so much for your question, and I hope that that that my response has been helpful. Thank you.