Immune System Flashcards
What is innate immunity?
generalized immunity with non-specific defense mechanisms
What are the three levels of innate immunity?
- physical and chemical barriers
- innate inflammatory response
- innate immune cells
What else can innate immunity activate?
adaptive immunity
What is an advantage and disadvantage of innate immunity?
it is fast but it doesn’t remember past infections
What is the skin barrier in the innate immune system?
-sweat is antimicrobial and has lysozymes
-and you are covered in “good” bacteria and fungi
What is the digestive, respiratory, and urogenital tracts barriers?
-secretory cells produce mucus to trap and destroy pathogens
-saliva has lysozymes that destroy pathogens
-tears and urine flush out pathogens
-low stomach pH kills pathogens
What happens when we couldn’t keep the
pathogen outside of the skin?
then we can use innate immune cell receptors
What are some innate immune cells?
mast cells, neutrophills
How do the cells recognize the pathogens?
they recognize general pathogen parts (such as single strand DNA, bacterial membrane)
What do innate immune cells do when they find a pathogen?
they trigger a transduction pathway
What does the transduction pathway of innate immune cells release?
complement
What is complement?
-poking holes in the pathogens to send signals of apoptosis
Explain the cascade of inflammatory response?
- injured cells secrete histamines (crying out for help)
- blood vessels dilate (let more blood in) -causes area of infection to be hot and red
- histamines make capillaries more permeable (easy for immune cells to get in) -causes swelling and pain
- neutrophils eneter permeable capillaries
What happens when neutrophils enter permeable capillaries?
- they recruit monocytes (which mature into macrophages)
- macrophages releases interleukin 1
What are monocytes?
immature macrophages that mature when they are needed
What does interleukin do, and what is the side effect?
they actually store iron in the spleen, because bacteria need iron to grow (this causes a fever)
What is adaptive immunity?
memory immunity that recognizes specific pathogens
What is an antigen?
something the body recognizes as non-self
What are two types of adaptive immunity?
- cell mediated
- humoral
What is a cytotoxic T-cell?
a white blood cell that has the ability to kill infected cells in the body