Responding to antigens Flashcards
Innate immune response
An inborn system that lacks specificity and memory
Stimulates - inflammation and phagocytosis → both can occur quickly, even if the host has never been previously exposed to a particular pathogen.
Inflammatory response
Reaction to an infection, injury, damaged tissue- results in:
Heat - due to increased blood flow
Pain - due to systemic response (ie fever), the stimulation of nerve endings through the release of histamine and swelling putting pressure on pain receptors.
Swelling - due to movement of fluid into tissues after vasodilation
Redness - due to vasodilation of blood vessels, leading to red blood cells released into tissue.
Due to accumulation of fluids and proteins and an increased blood supply to the infected region.
Stages of inflammatory response
- Initiation - involves the release of cytokines from damaged cells which trigger mast cells to undergo degranulation (release histamine)
- Vasodilation - Histamine from mast cells promotes vasodilation and blood vessel permeability allowing neutrophils and other immune cells travel to the site of infection (also stimulated by cytokines)
- Migration - phagocytes and complement proteins travel around the body and move from the permeable vessel to the infected site. They remove indigestible material.
→ Resolution includes a reversal of all the processes that produced the acute inflammation
Monocytes
- found in tissue
- Undergo differentiation into macrophages or dendritic cell
Neutrophils
- found in blood
- Most abundant circulating white blood cells
- Usually the first to site of infection
- Undergo phagocytosis
- Short life span
Dendritic cells
- found in tissue
- Antigen presenting cells
- Undergo phagocytosis (presenting their antigens to T cells to activate the adaptive immune response)
- Have branched projections, providing them with a large SA:V improving their phagocytic and antigen presenting properties.
Eosinophils
- found in blood
- Defend against larger parasitic agents (too large to be attacked by phagocytosis)
- Undergo degranulation (release of histamines)
- Undergo phagocytosis
Natural killer cells
- Found in blood
- Once pathogens have gained entry into the body cells and become intracellular, they cannot be directly attacked by innate immune cells → are eliminated by NK cells
- Eliminate virus, infected cells and cancer cells by degranulation and induce apoptosis
Mast cells
- found in tissue
- Mediate inflammatory response
- Upon stimulation, they release histamines, cytokines and heparin through degranulation
Macrophages
- found in tissue
- Undergo phagocytosis
- Initiate acute inflammatory responses through secretion of various cytokines
- Antigen-presenting cells
- Recruit other immune cells to an infection site
Degranulation
Process where immune cells release various toxic chemicals stored within secretory vesicles (cytoplasmic granules)
Natural killer cell degradation - releases proteases and perforin proteins, which insert holes in plasma membrane of foreign cells and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death)
Phagocytosis
- The pathogen is identified by a pattern recognition receptor (PRR)
- Engulfment - ATP required to carry out endocytosis
- Digestion - pathogen is engulfed in a vesicle called a phagosome. This fuses with a lysosome (forming a phagolysosome) and digestion of pathogen occurs using lysosomes
- Secretion - undigested material is secreted using exocytosis
- In macrophages and dendritic cells, some of this material is presented on MHC-II markers to activate the adaptive immune system
Cytokines
Cytokines are a broad group of molecules which facilitate communication between immune cells and attracts other immune cells to help destroy the pathogen
Histamine
Histamine is a type of cytokine that increases vascular permeability of blood vessels in inflamed areas making it easier for neutrophils, macrophages and blood proteins to squeeze out and into infected tissue
Complement proteins
Complement = proteins that are dissolved in the plasma of one’s blood - they complement or add to the function of immune cells.
1. Process of chemotaxis which attracting phagocytes to the area (for inflammatory response)
2. They opsonization pathogens, marking them for destruction by phagocytes (specific proteins will attach to bacterias and mark for destruction)
3. They destroy pathogens by lysis (causing the bacterial cell membrane to rupture) through the initiation of the membrane-attack complex (MAC) (punches holes in bacteria and lets fluid inside the cytoplasm of bacteria out and kills it)
Interferons
Increase the resistance of of uninfected cells to viral cells
When a cell is infected by a virus, the virus enters the cell and produces viral material. This signals the host cell to produce interferons, signalling molecules (cytokines). The virus infected cell will secrete interferons which attach to receptors on nearby cells and act as a warning signal so the cell can prepare for possible virus infection. The virus in the cell will replicate and when the host cell dies, the viral particles will be released