You can remove or kill all of your current Lymphocytes and still be healthy: they are about to do this to me. New lymphocytes are generated constantly and only "live" for about 30 days and they are constantly being replaced. The replacement cells do not come from the lymph nodes or the veriform appendix but from bone stem cells. Lymph nodes are there to provide places for the lymph nodes to be organized, ready to fight infection - and these are located throughout the body. You can also remove lymph nodes without impacting your ability to fight infection: this is common to biopsy lymphoma, and I have had several whole nodes removed for that purpose.
Lymphatic system - Wikipedia
quote:
The lymphatic system has three interrelated functions: (1) removal of excess fluids from body tissues, (2) absorption of fatty acids and subsequent transport of fat, chyle, to the circulatory system and, (3) production of immune cells (such as lymphocytes, monocytes, and antibody producing cells called plasma cells).
Those first two functions are part of the digestive system function and thus would be expected in an organ that was originally for digestion. Thus the vestigial use of the appendix is as a continued use of the lymph system because that part is still beneficial while the rest of the function is no longer served by the appendix.
quote:
The thymus, spleen, lymph nodes, peyer's patches, tonsils, vermiform appendix, and red bone marrow are accessory lymphoid tissues that comprise the lymphoid organs. These organs contain a scaffolding that support circulating B- and T-lymphocytes and other immune cells like macrophages and dendritic cells.
And because the lymph system was already there in the appendix when all other functions became obsolete it allowed the opportunity for this organ to evolve to assist the lymph system because that was beneficial (selected for).
This can of course also be compared to the lymph function in other animals that do have functional appendixes to see what the difference is.
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