Just a biology nerd explaining how the character design and writing of Cells at Work is scientifically sound and incredibly accurate
Spoilers for season one of the Cells at Work anime
Cover credit to official box art of the Cells at Work Volume 4 DVD
The first cell I'm going to talk about is everyone's favorite parasite-specific leukocyte, Eosinophil.
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First off, the character design on Eosinophil is subtle but accurate. The two pigtails combined with her pink and white hat are probably representative of the nucleus of a real eosinophil. These cells have a two-lobed nucleus that is easily visible when the eosinophil is stained and viewed under a microscope. Additionally, her weapon, a traditional sasumata, could show the double-lobed nature of a real eosinophil nucleus.
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The fact that Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell found Eosinophil patrolling around the stomach is also rooted in scientific fact. Because most parasites come into the body from food, the little eosinophils in the bloodstream often reside around or in the digestive tract.
The way eosinophils defeat parasites is a little different than Eosinophil in the anime. These cells are classified as granulocytes, meaning that you can see small granules within the eosinophil's cytoplasm that perform different functions. In the case of eosinophil, the cells lyse(or explode) when they come into contact with a parasite, releasing hundreds of these poisonous granules to kill the targeted parasite. While this doesn't happen in the anime, I believe that the degranulation of eosinophils and other cells like neutrophils and basophils is represented by their weapons, as the weapons are the only way we see invaders directly killed.
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It makes a lot of sense that we see Eosinophil interacting with Basophil. In the human body, Basophils trigger the release of histamine, a chemical we mainly see Mast Cell secreting in the anime, but histamine release is characteristic of both cells. This attracts eosinophils and neutrophils to the site to help with the extermination of either parasites or allergens.
Overall, I think Eosinophil's personality and design lend themselves a lot to her real-life counterparts. Still, I think it would have been cool to see both the parasite-fighting side of Eosinophil as well as the allergy-response side though B Cell and Mast Cell were already shown to do that. What cell should I review next?
