The Weapon
Factories of the Human Body: The B Cells
Some of the lymphocytes produced
in the bone marrow depart when they mature and become
fully functional, and are transported to the lymphatic
tissues through the blood. These lymphocytes are called
the B cells.
B cells are the weapon factories
of the body and they produce the proteins, called
antibodies, which are meant to attack the enemy.
The B Cell
Pathway
The
cells undergo a highly complex and laborious process
to become B cells. These cells must first pass a severe
test in order to become the warriors who will protect
human health.
In their initial phase, the B cells
rearrange the gene fragments that will form an antibody
molecule. These genes are actively transcribed as
soon as the rearrangement is complete. At this point,
it is very important to note how a tiny cell can perform
complex tasks such as arranging and transcription.
What is arranged and transcribed is actually information.
And information can be arranged and organized only
by a being who possesses intelligence. Furthermore,
the outcome after the arrangement is extremely important:
this information will later be used in the manufacture
of antibodies.
The transformation of B cells rapidly
goes on. Upon an order coming from an unknown source,
cells produce proteins called "alfa" and "beta", which
surround the cell membrane. At a further level, a
range of complicated processes are due to take place
in the cell to enable it to produce some molecules
that will enable it to bind to antigens. At the end
of all these complicated operations, the cells turn
into a factory that recognizes the enemy as soon as
it makes contact with it, and is able produce millions
of different weapons.
Can Every
B Cell That Has Been Manufactured Stay Alive?
The more we delve into the details
of the defence system, the more miracles we encounter.
As stated before, B cells manufacture antibodies.
Antibodies are weapons that are manufactured purely
to cause harm to enemy cells. So, what happens if
the weapons produced by the B cell confuse their targets
and start to hit friendly cells?
In that case, the other cells send
a signal inside the B cell. This signal is actually
an order for the cell to "commit suicide". Eventually,
some enzymes in the nucleus of the cell are activated
and they decompose the DNA of the cell. A perfectly
working auto-control mechanism protects the body,
and finally, only the B cells that produce antibodies
that cause harm to the enemy can stay alive.
Only comprised of a compact nucleus
and very little cytoplasm initially, the B cells undergo
unbelievable changes when they meet an antigen. They
divide repeatedly and build up thousands of assembly
points in their cytoplasm for the manufacture of antibodies,
as well as an extensive channeling system for the
packaging and exporting the antibodies. One B cell
can pump out more than 10 million antibody molecules
an hour.
Here is a single cell that transforms
itself into a factory competent enough to produce
10 million weapons an hour on meeting an enemy. If
we remember that this cell can produce different weapons
for each of its millions of enemies, we can better
understand the scope of the miracle in question here.
Some B cells become "memory cells".
These cells do not immediately participate in the
body's defence, but keep molecular records of past
invaders in order to accelerate a potential war in
the future. Their memory is very strong. When the
body meets the same enemy again, this time it is rapidly
geared to the appropriate weaponry production. Thus,
defence becomes faster and more efficient.
Here, we cannot help asking ourselves:
"How can man, who considers himself the most advanced
being, have a memory weaker than that of a tiny cell?"
Unable to explain even how the memory
of a normal human being forms and works, evolutionists
never attempt to explain the existence of such a memory
as a matter of evolution.
If a lump of flesh the size of a
hundredth of a millimeter had only one single piece
of information, and used this information for the
benefit of mankind in the most accurate way, even
this would be a miracle in its own right. However,
what we are referring to here goes far beyond that.
The cell stores millions of pieces of information
for the benefit of man and uses this information accurately
in combinations beyond man's comprehension. Man is
able to survive thanks to the wisdom these cells display.
Memory cells are cells specially
created to protect man's health. God equipped them
with strong memorizing ability by design. Otherwise,
it would be impossible for the cell to develop a strategy
on its own accord and give itself within this strategy
the responsibility for storing information. Moreover,
the cell is even unaware of such a need; much less
does it feel the need to employ such a strategy.
In addition, there is another important
question that needs to be answered about the strong
memories of the memory cells. In a normal human being,
eight million cells die every second to be replaced
by new ones. Therefore, the metabolism continuously
renews itself. Yet the life span of memory cells is
much longer than the life span of other cells. This
characteristic helps them to protect people from diseases
thanks to the information in their memories. These
cells, however, are not everlasting. Though a long
time later, they eventually die. At this point, we
are left with a very surprising situation. Memory
cells transfer the information they possess to the
next generation before they die. People are indebted
to these memory cells for not having to be afflicted
all over again by the same in diseases they caught
in infancy (measles, mumps, etc.).
How then can this cell know that
it has to transfer this information?
This surely cannot be attributed
to the cell itself, but to the ability granted to
it by its Creator.
How Do the
B cells Recognize the Enemy?
In
a complete state of preparedness for war, the B cells
then learn to discriminate the enemies from the body
cells before defending the body.
They do not need to expend much effort
to do this, because these cells and the antibodies
they manufacture are able to recognize the enemy directly
from their shapes without any assistance. A receptor
on their surface meets the antigen for which it was
programmed, and binds to several small parts on it.
Thus, the antigen is identified as a foreigner. In
this way, B cells can easily recognize antigens, such
as bacteria.
What is
the Function of B cells?
B cells are like guards who are
always on the look-out for microbes. When they encounter
an invader, they rapidly divide and start to produce
antibodies. These antibodies bind to microbes like
B cell receptors. The enemy cells that are marked
by the antibodies as foreigners are driven out of
the body at the end of the relentless struggle of
phagocytes and T cells. By the time the B cells inactivate
the enemy with the millions of antibodies they have
produced, they have also marked it for killer cells.
Here, there is another important point, which is as
important as destroying and marking foreign cells.
It is about how so many antibodies can be produced
by a limited number of genes.
As outlined in detail
in the section on "Antibodies", the B cells use the
genes in the human body to manufacture antibodies.
However, the number of genes in the human body is
less than the number of antibodies produced. This
situation causes no problem for the cells. Despite
all these limitations, they succeed in producing nearly
2 million antibody types an hour.9
B cells interact in various combinations with available
genes to make the above-mentioned production. It is
literally impossible for a cell to think up these
combinations. These unconscious cells are given the
ability to involve themselves in these combinations
by the will of God. This is because "...When
He decides on something, He just says to it, 'Be!'
and it is." (Surat al-Baqara:117)
No other force in the heavens and
on the earth save God is capable of ordering even
a single feature of the trillions of cells. It becomes
possible only by the will of God that a cell performs
such mathematical operations as producing the most
appropriate weapon to inactivate every enemy that
has invaded the cell.
Brave Warriors:
T cells
Some lymphocytes migrate to the
thymus after they are manufactured in the bone marrow.
The lymphocytes, which multiply and mature here, are
called T cells. These cells mature to form two different
types: killer and helper T cells. After a three-week
education, T cells migrate to the spleen, lymph nodes,
and intestinal tissues to wait for the time of their
mission.
The T cell
Pathway
In comparison to B cells, T cells
must go through a much more complicated course to
be ready to commence their mission. Just like B cells,
they, too, are simple cells in the beginning. These
simple cells go through a series of difficult tests
to become a T cell.
In the first test, it is checked
whether the cell can recognize the enemy or not. The
cells recognizes the enemy with the assistance of
"MHC"(Major Histocompatibility Complex) located on
the surface of the enemy, which is a molecule that
subjects the antigen to a series of chemical processes
and presents it to the T cells.
Eventually, only those cells that
are able to identify the enemy can survive. The others
are not tolerated and they are immediately destroyed.
The recognition of enemy cells alone
does not ensure the survival of T cells. These cells
must also have a very good knowledge of the harmless
substances and the regular tissues of the human body
so to as prevent unnecessary conflict, which will
eventually harm the body.
|
What is the MHC (Major
Histocompatibility Complex) Molecule?
MHC is a molecule specially created to help
the T cells in recognizing the enemy. They
subject the antigen to a series of chemical
processes and present it to the T cells. With
the aid of MHC molecules, virus particles,
cancer cell molecules, and even particles
belonging to the inner part of a bacterium
can be detected.
There is a very important reason for the
T cells to use MHC molecules. This helps them
to penetrate host cells and locate camouflaged
viruses. However, even the help of the MHC
molecule is not sufficient for T cells to
fulfill their function. T cells also need
a helper cell. Called the APC (antigen-presenting
cells) for the sake of brevity, these cells
break antigens apart and grab a very important
part from the antigen. This part contains
the amino acid sequence that determines the
antigen's identity. The T cell is activated
when it receives this identity information
from the APCs.
As we can see, there is a need for a superb
sub-system for the defence system even to
start a war. The absence of even a single
component of this intelligence network, made
up of many interconnected subunits, would
render the system useless. Under these circumstances,
it would be beyond reason to talk about coincidence
in the formation of such an intelligence system.
Entertaining such views would be verging on
superstition.
There is wisdom at all levels of this system
which has been flawlessly created by God.
An example of this would be the performance
of APC cells that bring the enemy to T cells.
These cells are aware that T cells can recognize
the enemy from its amino acid sequence. This
is one of the thousands of pieces of evidence
that both cells are created by the same power,
that is, God. Either a macrophage or
a B cell presents an antigen to a helper T
cell. To accomplish this, the antigen has
to be digested to peptides that are combined
with an MHC protein. The complex is presented
to the T cell. In return, the helper T cell
produces and secretes lymphokines that stimulate
T cells and other immune cells. |
9- Scientific
American, September 1993, p. 58
