How do Lymph Nodes Function?
Lymph nodes are perfused by two fluid channel systems. The first one is a customary blood circulatory network with entering arterial and exiting venous flows. The second is a lymph fluid channel system entering the node through afferent vessels and exiting via efferent vessels (Ohtani et al., 2003).The blood circulatory network, in addition to providing for the metabolic needs of the lymph node, delivers T and B cells. These cells enter through the high endothelial vessels, and traverse nodal tissue (Ohtani et al., 2003). Most of these cells fail to find an activating antigen, but rather than leaving the lymph node via the blood stream they exit via the efferent lymph system. Cells that encounter an antigenic target may locally proliferate but then also leave via the efferent lymph system. The number of cells transported back to the circulatory system from the lymph nodes has been calculated in the canine system to be about 245,000 cells per minute per kilogram of weight (Minnebaev et
