spleen
There seems no good reason why the spleen should have deserved these associations — unlike, say, the heart which manifests its link with love by an increase in beating rate with excitement. The spleen is physiologically and anatomically unobtrusive. It is in fact — unusually in the body for an unpaired organ — dispensible. We can live without it because its functions can be taken over elsewhere. It is a small spongy purple mass in a fibrous capsule, tucked under the left side of the diaphragm (smaller than the liver which is tucked under the right side).
The spleen is in a way a poor relation among organs in that it is rarely in the public eye — not even on the butcher's counter. It is not susceptible to dramatic televisual imaging and it does not invite transplantation. It does however sometimes need to be removed: it can suffer hidden injury, for example in crushing or road traffic accidents, when its rupture can cause internal bleeding; other causes for splenectomy include some blood diseases.
Although we can do without it if necessary, the spleen does normally have important functions. In fetal life it is the site of red blood cell formation, until this is taken over by the bone marrow. It contributes to the immune system, forming antibodies and producing and storing masses of lymphocytes. It contains extensive channels and spaces (sinuses) where the blood flows slowly and where senescent red blood cells break down and are removed from the circulation. It therefore becomes enlarged in some infective, parasitic, and blood diseases.
The spleen acts to some extent as a blood reservoir, although this mechanism for increasing circulating blood volume is relatively minor and unimportant in humans compared with some other animals. The smooth muscle in its capsule is activated by the autonomic nervous system in conditions of ‘fight or flight’ or after blood loss, squirting a little extra blood into the circulation — which is perhaps the nearest physiological equivalent to the metaphoric ‘venting’.
Sheila Jennett
See lymphatic system.See also blood; humours; immune system.
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spleen
spleen, soft, purplish-red organ that lies under the diaphragm on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The spleen acts as a filter against foreign organisms that infect the bloodstream, and also filters out old red blood cells from the bloodstream and decomposes them. These functions are performed by phagocytic cells that are capable of engulfing and destroying bacteria, parasites, and debris. Ordinarily, the spleen manufactures red blood cells only toward the end of fetal life, and after birth that function is taken over by the bone marrow. However, in cases of bone marrow breakdown, the spleen reverts to its fetal function. The spleen also acts as a blood reservoir; during stress or at other times when additional blood is needed, the spleen contracts, forcing stored blood into circulation (see circulatory system). It is sometimes necessary to remove the spleen entirely, particularly in trauma cases, although recent studies have shown the spleen to be far more important than initially suspected in the fight against infection.
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spleen
—splenic (splen-ik) adj.
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spleen
spleen / splēn/ • n. 1. Anat. an abdominal organ involved in the production and removal of blood cells in most vertebrates and forming part of the immune system. 2. bad temper; spite: he could vent his spleen on the institutions that had duped him. DERIVATIVES: spleen·ful / -fəl/ adj. (in sense 2). ORIGIN: Middle English: shortening of Old French esplen, via Latin from Greek splēn.
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spleen
So splenetic XVI. — late L. splēnēticus. splenic XVII. — L.- Gr.
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