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Glite Dictionary
🎯 A cell affected 🩸 A red blood cell
target cell

target cell

1 5.2
A cell that responds to a specific agent, like a hormone or a virus
  • noun
  • /ˈtɑːrɡɪt sɛl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : célula objetivo
  • Gene therapy effectively delivers disease-fighting genes to target cells that are affected by the disease.

Examples

  • This is its target cell, because the second target cell is displaying on its surface certain antigens.

  • And once testosterone enters a target cell, if this is the scenario that's going to happen, it's inside the cell, the testosterone is termed turned to estrogen.

  • The vaccine aims to stimulate an immune response specifically in target cells that are known to harbor the virus.

  • Researchers focused on how to better deliver treatments directly to target cells in order to improve patient outcomes.

Surface Forms

target cell singular
target cells plural

Morphology

target + cell

The meaning 'a cell that is the focus of action' is directly and compositionally derived from 'target' (an object aimed at) plus 'cell' (a microscopic unit). This noun–noun combination follows a regular, non-idiomatic pattern (the thing being targeted), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Target cell comes from the idea of aiming at a target: some cells have special 'locks' on their surface, so a drug, hormone, or virus can find and act on them. That's why scientists call it a target cell — it is the one being 'targeted' for action.