Removing the spleen can have seripus health implications beyond just increased pneumonia in the elderly. Their monocytes have many functions, apparently.
Reporting in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School describe studies showing that the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis.
The new findings in no way counter the necessity of excising a ruptured spleen, the researchers said, but they do suggest that the loss of the organ is more than a mere "inconvenience," as it has often been depicted, and could help explain previous reports showing an enhanced risk of early death among people who have undergone splenectomies.
The splenectomized men, the researchers found, were twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as were the veterans in the control group.
...monocytes, the largest of the body's white blood cells. "It was recognized that these cells are the major repair workers after a heart attack," Dr. Nahrendorf said. "They remove dead muscle cells, they start rebuilding stable scar tissue, they stimulate the generation of new blood vessels."
Finally, the Spleen Gets Some Respect