Dying white blood cells can be seen 'communicating' as scientists make groundbreaking discovery

In a world first, Melbourne scientists have captured on video each stage of death of a human white blood cell, a phenomenon never seen before and which reveals the cells apparently try to alert their immune system allies that they are dying.

White blood cells are the critical, disease-fighting cells of the immune system which fight bacterial and fungal infections, as well as viruses.

Using time-lapse microscopy, which allows very fast events to be captured by taking hundreds of photographs every second and then viewing them in a sequence at high speed, the La Trobe University scientists saw molecules being ejected from inside the dying white blood cell.

Until now, scientists believed cells died and fell apart in a random process. The time-lapse "video", however, shows their death is highly controlled and deliberate. The findings were published in the prestigious international medical journal, Nature Communications.

Cell biologist Georgia Atkin-Smith was co-leader of the team to capture the process, which she said shows cell death comprised three stages; bulging, exploding and breaking apart.

"So when the cell starts to die it forms these lumps which push outwards and when the cell then explodes, it shoots out long 'beaded' protrusions which look like a necklace, which then breaks apart into individual 'beads'," she said.