Episode 17

"H. Pylori/Antigenic Shift" (ピロリ菌/抗原変異) is the seventeenth episode of the Cells at Work! anime.

Synopsis
The Immune Cells race to the scene of an incident and fight off cells infected by a virus. A Normal Cell observes this everyday scene with a bored look on his face.

Plot
H. Pylori

Every Cell in the body has a task to keep the body running. However, for Normal Cell, there's no particular task. He dreams of one day saving someone like the white blood cells do and having them say thank you. The Normal Cell finds four cute and tine bacteria and keeps them as pets.

AE3803 delivers oxygen to the Normal Cell but U-1146 soon hear the sounds of the bacteria and thinks that Normal Cell is being held hostage by an antigen, so he kicks the door open to capture the bacteria for future disposal. At the same time, U-1146 gets a call to get to the stomach. Normal Cell follows U-1146, worried about his pets.

When they arrive at the stomach, they find that it's being attacked by H. Pylori (Bacteria).

In all the commotion, debris comes falling down right on top of Normal Cell's bacteria pets. Luckily, Normal Cell reaches them in time and saves them. One of the bacteria beats up the H. Pylori, allowing U-1146 to kill it.

U-1146 realizes that Normal Cell's pets are Lactic Acid Bacteria and helpful to the body. The one that fought H. Pylori decides to stay in the stomach while the others remain with Normal Cell.

U-1146 thanks Normal Cell and invites him to join him on patrol.

Antigenic Shift

While on patrol, U-1146 and Normal Cell go to the small intestine. The tube-like organ is overloaded with Purine. Luckily, one of the Lactic Acid Bacteria eats it before letting it stay there.

Later, Normal Cell accidentally drops one of the remaining two Lactic Acid Bacteria into a storm drain. Unfortunately, U-1146 has no authority over the immune response, so he can't tell the other white blood cells not to attack that bacterium. This revelation reduces Normal Cell to tears as he insults U-1146 for being heartless.

Just then, Natural Killer Cell arrives.

New characters

 * Normal Cell
 * Lactic Acid Bacteria
 * H. Pylori (Bacteria)

Returning characters

 * AE3803
 * U-1146
 * Natural Killer Cell