Immune System Flashcards
(26 cards)
What is immunity?
The ability of an organism to defend itself.
What are the bodies two defense mechanisms?
Non Specific (aka innate) Specific (aka adaptive)
Describe the Non-Specific immune response.
The immune system attacks all pathogens in the same way.
Describe the Specific immune response
The immune system creates a tailor made responses. i.e. Antigens, B & T Cells
What is the first line of defense?
Skin and mucus
What is the second line of defense?
Inflammatory response, temperature etc (Non Specific response)
What is the 3rd line of defense?
Immune system T & B Cells etc (Specific Response)
What is a pathogen?
Foreign body that enters the system and can cause illness
What is an Antigen?
They identifiers/markers made of protein that are found on each cells surface. (Antibody Generator)
What is an epitope?
The region of the antigen that touches the Antibody
Where would you find heavy chains?
The longer solid inside chains on Antibodies
Where would you find Light chain?
The shorter, outside chains on Antibodies
Where is the antigen binding site?
The tip of the Antibody
Where is the constant and variable regions of an Antibody?
Constant region is the made body of the Antibody that dosen’t change
Variable is the tips of the ‘Y’ that change depending on the Antibody.
What is the purpose of B Cells and where are they made?
They produce Antibodies and make memory cells.
Bone Marrow
What is the function of T Cells, and where are they made and where do they mature?
T Cells ‘police’ the immune system and act as an Admiral. Once activated they clone making more copies of themselves. They communicate with the B Cells and Change into Killer T Cells to carry out cellular response, killing the infected human cells.
What is Helper T Cells job?
They clone themselves first, instruct the B Cells to clone and then make memory B Cells and antibodies, they also change some of themselves into killer T Cells.
What is the Humoral response?
When the T Cells tell the B Cells the antigen shape.
Activates more Macrophages
What is cellular response?
This is when a Killer T cell kills an infected human cell, to prevent the other cells becoming infected.
What WBC create pus?
Nutrophils.
What is the purpose of Memory cells?
They keep a copy of the Antigen of the virus/bacteria so that should a second infection occur a quicker response can happen.
With Antibodies attaching to the antigen, what is the 4 possible outcomes.
Neutralisation - All antigen sites get covered preventing the pathogen to enter a cell.
Agglutination - Causes the pathogens to get clumped together
Precipitation -
Complement reaction - (Flag waving)
What is the name of active immunity receive after an infection?
Natural immunity
What is the name of active immunity received after a vaccine?
Artificial immunity
