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 The Lymphatic System

The Lymphatic System
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.37

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    lymphatic, reusing, thymus, abdomen, separate, fluid, thereby, organ, multiply, absorb, lymph, spleen, significant, role, upper, receive

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The Lymphatic System
By Jennifer Kenny 		  
1     Some scientists like to separate the functions of the circulatory system thereby creating another system called the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system has two main roles - to receive fluid from cells and return it to your blood and to fight pathogens, or microorganisms and viruses that make you sick.
 
2     Like the blood vessels in the circulatory system, there are vessels in the lymphatic system. The smallest ones are lymph capillaries. They absorb extra fluid from between cells and capture anything such as dead cells, which are too big to go into the blood capillaries. This collected fluid and particles are called lymph. The squeezing of skeletal muscles, and not the pumping of the heart, moves lymph through vessels to drain into large neck veins. Unlike blood capillaries, lymph doesn't carry oxygen and nutrients to other parts of the body.
 
3     In addition to vessels and capillaries, there are four organs that belong to the lymphatic system. They are lymph nodes, thymus, spleen, and tonsils.

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