Immunology

Question 1

What are the primary tissues of the immune system?

Answer 1

Spleen, thymus, bone marrow

Question 2

What happens during an infection?

Answer 2

Immune system activates to defend the body, several characters working together

Question 3

What components of the immune system are related to specific immunity?

Answer 3

T cells, B cells

Question 4

What are the players involved in innate immunity?

Answer 4

Granulocytes (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils), macrophages, natural killer cells, complement proteins

Question 5

What are B and T cells derived from? Where do they develop? What immunity are their responses involved in?

Answer 5

progenitor cells in the bone marrow
B cells develop in the bone marrow; T cells develop in the thymus gland
B cell responses related to humoral immunity
T cell responses related to cellular immunity

Question 6

What is humoral immunity?

Answer 6

B cell immunity
Fights bacteria and viruses in body fluids with antibodies from plasma and lymph

Question 7

What two cells do B cells differentiate into?

Answer 7

Antibody producing cells, memory cells

Question 8

What is the structure of immunoglobulins?

Answer 8

one of 5 heavy chains
2 light chains

Question 9

What are the 5 isotypes of immunoglobulins?

Answer 9

IgM, IgD, IgG, IgA, and IgE

Question 10

What is the role of T cells?

Answer 10

Lysis of virally infected cells and rejection of foreign tissue grafts
Can function as “killer”, “helper”, or “suppressor”

Question 11

What is the significance of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)?

Answer 11

These are the molecules tested in transplant donors/recipients

Question 12

What are some key features of the innate immune system?

Answer 12

Confers broad protection against pathogens and can act without previous exposure to that pathogen
Inflammatory responses is hallmark

Question 13

What are some clinical features of immunodeficiency?

Answer 13

Increased susceptibility to infection
chronic/recurrent infections without explanation
infection with organism of low virulence
infection of unusual severity
autoimmune or inflammatory disease

Question 14

What are some hallmarks of primary immune deficiency disorders?

Answer 14

Predominance of males M:F 5:1
>120 conditions with known genetic causes
most diagnosed in infancy but 40% diagnosed in adolescence or early adulthood

Question 15

What are the three subgroups of primary immune deficiency disorders?

Answer 15

antibody deficiency disorders
combined immune deficiency disorders
other well-defined immune deficiency disorders

Question 16

What is the most common primary immunodeficiency disease?

Answer 16

Selective IgA deficiency

Question 17

What is the underlying mechanism of X-linked agammaglobulinemia?

Answer 17

failure of B-cell precursors to mature into B-cells and ultimately plasma cells

Question 18

What is the underlying mechanism of X-linked hyper IgM syndrome?

Answer 18

Failure of T- and B-cell interactions

Question 19

What is the underlying mechanism of SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome)?

Answer 19

absence of T-cell and B-cell function

Question 20

APS type 1

Answer 20

AR inheritance of mutations in Aire (autoimmune regulator) gene

Question 21

What is newborn screening measuring?

Answer 21

TRECs (T-cell receptor excision circles)
severely reduced in all forms of SCID