Running head: FANTASTIC VOYAGE

Fantastic Voyage

By June Saxton

August 2, 2011

Good Morning, this is June Sanderson Saxton reporting to you from Genesee Labs in

Genesee, Colorado for 20/20 from the miniature submarine Capoeira as I embark on a fact

checking mission into the body of Kristen Phoebus a healthy 27 year old female. The purpose of

our mission is to verify the facts that have been previously discovered about the body by visual

examination

On board with me is my pilot, Captain Jessica Cunnington and Dr. Jerome Sanderson. I

will be your guide on the journey. The submarine’s periscope is actually a video camera which

will document our journey and we are also equipped with torpedoes filled with antibiotics in case

we cause any problems to the immune system by inadvertently carrying any harmful bacteria on

our hull.

We have just been injected into Kristen’s right femoral vein just behind the knee and are

beginning our journey. Right now the femoral artery is lying behind and to the side of us. The

first order of business is to check the cellular structure of the vein. The periscope is extended

and we begin documenting our journey. We observe that indeed the vein consists of three layers:

the inner layer or Tunica intima which contains valves that prevent retrograde movement of the

blood, the middle layer or Tunica media which consists of a thin layer of smooth muscle and the

Tunica externa which is the outer layer of fibrous connective tissue. We then continue up the

thigh up to the abductor canal the femoral artery is behind us. As we continue up the thigh the

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FANTASTIC VOYAGE

femoral artery, we are medial to the femoral artery and within the femoral sheath which

transverses the femoral triangle.

As we wait for the valve to open so we may continue on our journey, we receive an

urgent message from Mission Control at Genesee labs that a bacterium is invading the lower lobe

of the right lung and our mission has now changed. We must now get to the lung and join

Kristen’s immune system in fighting this invader. We check our diagrams of the circulatory

system to determine the best route. After we find the route we wish to take, we then continue

along the femoral vein to the external iliac vein where it joins with the common iliac vein and

continue up the abdominal aorta through the diaphragm and on into the lungs. As we pass

through the diaphragm, our journey is rather bumpy but this is helpful because we are pushed

along as Kristen breathes in and out thus speeding us up. We then continue into the Aorta where

blood flow is increased because the heart is frantically pumping an increased amount of blood to

the site of the infection again making the journey faster. We continue up the aorta to the right

pulmonary artery to the lungs where we will join with Kristen’s white blood cells to fight the

bacterium.

In the lungs, the battle is raging and the white blood cells are working hard to make

antibodies and the inflammatory response is at work to try and fight the invading bacteria.

Because some tissue damage has occurred, mediators have been released causing increased

blood flow which attracts more white blood cells to the site increasing the number of leukocytes

and mediators. Some of the bacteria are contained, destroyed and eaten by phagocytes, but this

is a particularly stubborn bacteria and Kristen has no natural immunity to it as it is suspected to

by the bacteria that causes bronchitis or pneumonia. Also she has no artificial immunity because

there is no vaccine for this bacterium. More help is needed. Therefore, I confer with the Captain

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Cunnington and the Doctor Sanderson and we determine that we need to fire our antibiotic

torpedoes to help her antibodies with the work.

As we prepare to fire our torpedoes, we also see the lymphocytes being formed at a

cellular level producing the B cells which produce the humoral immunity needed to change the

antigens so that the bacterium cannot harm Kristen’s body. They accomplish this by activating B

cells developing into plasma cells. The plasma cells are secreting antibodies into the blood and

then the circulating antibodies produce the humoral immunity. T cells are also forming in the

bone marrow and migrating to the thymus gland to produce cell mediated immunity which helps

kill the invading cells by releasing chemicals to help attract macrophages to kill the cells by

phagocytosis. We watch as the phagocytes devour some of the bacteria, but they are losing the

fight.

Therefore, the captain gives the order to fire the antibiotic torpedoes. Ready, aim, fire!

The antibiotic torpedoes explode spreading the deadly chemical which works to kill the

bacterium at a cellular level by inhibiting their ability to construct their cell walls. We watch as

together the antibodies and the chemical works to destroy the bacterium.

Our job now is to exit the body safely. We determine that the best route would be to cross

the alveolar membrane and exit through the nose. After we cross the alveolar membrane, we

enter the right primary bronchi to the trachea. We then travel up the trachea to the larynx,

through the pharynx and into the nasal cavity in the right nostril. The nose perceives us as an

invader and begins producing a great deal of mucous which flushes us out of the nose. The team

from Genesee Labs is ready for us and we are extracted and undergo the deminiaturization

process and are debriefed.

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This is June Sanderson Saxton for 20/20 signing out. I hope you enjoyed watching the

“Battle of the Lung”.

References

Chris, Dr. (2011). Femoral Blood Vessels (Artery and Vein), Anatomy, Pictures. Health

Hype. Retrieved 8/2/2011 from http://www.healthhype.com/femoral-blood-vessels-ar tery-

and-vein-anatomy-pictures.html.

Discovery Communications, LLC. (2011). How do antibiotics work? Discovery

Health. Retrieved 8/2/2011 from http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/medicatio

n/question88.htm.

Thibodeau, Patton (2008), Structure & Function of the Body, 13th Edition, Mosby Elsevier, St.

Louis, MO

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