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Multiple Choice

What is positive chemotaxis?

Positive chemotaxis is the movement of white blood cells toward higher concentrations of a chemical attractant. In the immune response, neutrophils and other leukocytes detect chemoattractants such as bacterial products and inflammatory mediators and migrate along the chemical gradient to the site of infection. This makes the idea of guiding white blood cells to invading pathogens the best description, because it captures the purpose of chemotaxis: drawing defense cells toward the source of infection to neutralize it. The other options describe different immune activities: producing antibodies is about activating the adaptive response rather than movement; tissue repair involves other processes and cells, not the chemotactic migration itself; and while some signals can come from pathogens, the core idea is the directed movement toward the pathogens themselves.

Positive chemotaxis is the movement of white blood cells toward higher concentrations of a chemical attractant. In the immune response, neutrophils and other leukocytes detect chemoattractants such as bacterial products and inflammatory mediators and migrate along the chemical gradient to the site of infection. This makes the idea of guiding white blood cells to invading pathogens the best description, because it captures the purpose of chemotaxis: drawing defense cells toward the source of infection to neutralize it.

The other options describe different immune activities: producing antibodies is about activating the adaptive response rather than movement; tissue repair involves other processes and cells, not the chemotactic migration itself; and while some signals can come from pathogens, the core idea is the directed movement toward the pathogens themselves.