Question

Healthy individuals have approximately ____ of CD4 T cells compared with CD8 T cells.

a. one quarter the number
b. half the number
c. equal numbers
d. twice the number
e. four times the number

Answer 1

In healthy individuals, there are approximately equal numbers of CD4 T cells and CD8 T cells, which is critical for a properly functioning immune system.

Step-by-step explanation:

In human biology, healthy individuals typically have equal numbers of CD4 T cells and CD8 T cells. CD4 T cells, also known as helper T cells, are essential for orchestrating the immune response by releasing cytokines, whereas CD8 T cells, also known as cytotoxic T cells, are crucial for directly killing infected cells.

Flow cytometry is a standard laboratory technique used to determine the relative quantities of these cells. Given the information that CD4+T cell counts are about 1,000 per microliter in a healthy person, we can infer that in a healthy individual's immune system, the ratio of CD4 to CD8 T cells would be approximately 1:1, provided that there is no indication of immune dysfunction or an active infection influencing the number of cells.