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NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Pus and Immune Cells 
Name: Katarina
Status: Student
Age: 20s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
What is pus made of? is it made of immune cells? what is mucous made of and is its only function lubrication? does mucous also contain immune cells?


Replies:
Pus is a combination of dead bacteria and dead white blood cells. The greenish-white color is the dead white blood cells. Mucous is a lubricating material found on mucous membranes and produced in mucous-producing goblet cells. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the chemical make-up of mucous is. The mucous doesn't contain immune cells in itself, but once it takes up residence on the mucous membranes it gets mixed with many other substances and immune cells are probably mixed in with them at that point.

Van Hoeck


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