Immunology Flashcards
What is the immune system?
An organised system of organs, cells and molecules that work together to protect the body against disease.
What is the immune system important for?
to protect the body against infections, inflammatory disease and cancer.
What are pathogens?
micro-organisms that cause disease
What are lymphocytes?
primary lymphoid organs that produce white blood cells.
What are the 2 primary lymphoid organs?
Thymus
Bone marrow
What is the function of the thymus?
contain white blood cells called T cells and whilst they develop, it ensures they do not react to themselves.
What is the function of bone marrow?
Contains stem cells that then go on to become innate and adaptive immune cells
What are the 2 secondary lymphoid organs?
Spleen
Lymph Nodes
What is the function of the spleen?
initiates immune responses against blood-bone pathogens
What is the function of lymph nodes?
they initiate other immune responses and filter lymph fluid from the blood and tissues
What are lymph nodes?
are abundant and located along lymphatic vessels,
What are the 3 layers of defense for the immune system?
chemical and physical barriers
Innate arm
Adaptive arm
What are the 2 layers of the skin?
epidermis and dermis
What does the epidermis contain?
dead cells, keratin and dentritic cells
What is the function of the epidermis?
Phagocytic immune cells which are constantly being renewed
What is the dermis?
a think layer of connective tissue, collagen and blood vessels
What immune cels are found in the dermis?
phagocytic
What is the chemical defense for the skin?
antimicrobial peptides
What are antimicrobial peptides?
defensins which form pores in microbial cell membranes, lysozymes which break down bacterial cell walls, sebum which has a low pH and salt which is hypertonic
What is the purpose for the skins chemical defense?
can kill microbes or provide non-optimal conditions for growth and function.
What is the mucous membrane?
defense barrier found in ocular, respiratory, oral, urogenital and rectal parts of the body.
What makes up the mucous membrane?
1-2 layers of tightly packed, constantly renewed epithelium with goblet cells.
What are goblet cells?
produce mucous
What is the mucociliary escalator process?
mucous catches debris, cilia move mucous, and thus debris, up to the pharynx where it is swallowed and excreted
Where is cilia found?
mucous membranes in the trachea and uterine tubes
What is the innate defense?
already in place, consisting of the surface barriers and internal defenses.
What is the adaptive defenses?
improve and develop as the response goes on and consists of humoral immunity – B cells and cellular immunity – T cells
What is the repsonse time of innate and adaptive defenses?
innate is rapid
adaptive is slow
What is the specificity of the innate and adaptive defenses?
innate is low
adaptive is high
What is the memory of the innate and adaptive defenses?
innate has no memory
adaptive is long-term specific
Can the innate and adaptive defenses develop/adapt?
innate is fixed
adaptive is variable
What is an example of innate immunity?
Skin, mucous membranes.
Phagocytes, inflammation, fever, natural killer cells, antimicrobial proteins.
What is an example of adaptive immunity?
B cells, T cells
What is the % make up of blood?
55% plasma and 45% formed elements
What is plasma made up of?
proteins
What are formed elements consisting of?
platelets, leukocytes and red blood cells
What are the 3 lineages of blood?
Erythroid
Myeloid
Lymphoid
What are the 3 lineages derived form?
hematopoiesis of bone marrow stem cells
What are Erythroid?
red blood cells
What is Myeloid?
granulocytes, monocytes, dendritic cells, platelets (innate)
What is Lymphoid?
B and T cells (adaptive)
What are granulations?
type of myeloid blood cell that contains granules
What are examples of granulations?
neutrophils and mast cells
What are neutrophils?
type of granulocyte that makes up 75% of leukocytes present in the body.
What is the function of neutrophils?
phagocytic cells that digest foreign materials and cells
What happens to the number of neutrophils int he blood during infection?
increases
where are mast cells?
line mucosal surfaces
What is the function of mast cells?
release granules that recruit more WBCs to damaged tissue
What do phagocytic cells consist of?
monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells
Where are monocytes found?
in blood
What is the phagocytic ability of monocytes?
low
What is the function of monocytes?
when they leave the blood and enter tissues they develop into macrophages
What is the phagocytic ability of macrophages?
high
What is the function of macrophages?
can be remain in tissues or migrate between them. also have the ability to release chemical messengers and to inform T cells about pathogenic microbes
Where are dendritic cells found?
in the blood and epithelial tissue in low numbers.
What is the function of dendritic cells?
initiating the adaptive immune responses.
What is the migration of immune cells?
travel through the blood, in which they can leave to enter tissues. They can also be carried in the lymph by lymphatic vessels and drained into lymph nodes, where immune responses can be initiated
How do innate cells recognise pathogens?
pathogen-associated molecular patterns
What is pathogen-associated molecular patterns?
building-blocks of pathogenic organisms
In viruses what can the building blocks be?
ssRNA and dsRNA
in bacteria what can the building block be?
lipopolysaccharides, endotoxins and lipoteichoic acid found in the cell wall, flagellin from flagella, or unmethylated CpG DNA
Where are toll-like recpetors found?
either on the cell membrane or in the cell in phagolysosomes
What is the function of toll-like receptors?
bind PAMPs and send signals to the nucleus to regulate gene transcription
When do fevers occur?
when the pyrogen interleukin-1 (IL-1) is released by immune cells after ingesting bacteria
What does a fever cause?
re-setting of the thermostat to an abnormally high temperature of above 37°C.
What is the inflammatory response?
- Tissue-resident cells release chemical signals that attract more cells to injury site.
- Neutrophils enter blood from the bone marrow and travel to injury site.
- Neutrophils cling to the capillary wall.
- Tissue-resident cells release chemical signals that dilate blood vessels, making the capillaries leaky.
- Neutrophils enter the injury site, following the chemical signal, by squeezing though the leaky capillary wall.
What are the stages of phagocytosis?
- Phagocyte comes into contact with pathogens/debris and adheres to it.
- Pseudopod forms around and engulfs the particle, forming a phagosome.
- Lysosome fuses with phagosome, forming a phagolysosome.
- Lysosome enzymes and toxic compounds break down pathogens.
- Indigestible and residual material removed from the phagocyte via exocytosis.
Where are Pathogens and debris are broken down in ?
phagolysosome
What are the properties of the phagolysosome?
acid environment, contains reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen intermediates, as well as enzymes such as proteases, lipases and nucleases
What does the complete cascade involve?
9 proteins/protein complexes that act in sequence to clear tissues and blood of pathogens,
What are the 3 pathways for the complete cascade?
classical
alternative
lectin
What is the classical pathway?
occurs when an antibody bound to a pathogen binds a complement.
What is the alternative pathway?
occurs when a pathogen directly binds a complement to its surface or one of its components.
What is the lectin pathway?
occurs when a carbohydrate component of a microbe binds complement.