Question: What is the most important type of cell in the immune system?

Luke Humphrey answered on 16 Jul 2024:

Boring answer: the immune system is more than the sum of its parts. Many cells work together to achieve an immune response, so it’s hard to say one is more important than any other.

Normal answer: white blood cells – they do the actual destroying of pathogens so without them the active part of the immune system could not really function at all. I’m not sure how useful they are on their own though.

Better answer: mucous cells – they create mucus which passively reduce the number of pathogens which can enter the body. Since they’re part of the passive immune system, they’re useful by themselves.

Even better answer: pathogens – without them the immune system wouldn’t have a reason to exist so it wouldn’t evolve in the first place 😆
(ok not all pathogens are cellular so not a valid answer but…)

Maybe an actual biologist can give a better answer…