Immune System - Answer Key

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THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Name one way that Hank does not like to die. Jumping out of planes Avoids active combat zones Does not do heroin What are pathogens? Less than harmless viruses or bacteria Two specific ways of fighting pathogens: Innate immune system (non-specific): responds to all pathogens in the same way, whether your body has seen that pathogen before or not. Acquired immune system (adaptive): develops more slowly and requires your body to learn the wily ways of the pathogens before dealing with it. What are the two first lines of defense for your body? Skin membranes is oily and acidic Mucus membranes line all of your internal surfaces What is mucus? Viscous fluid that traps microbes and sweeps them away What is the second line of defense for your body? inflammatory response What are the specialized cells in your connective tissue? Mast cells, constantly search for suspicious objects, usually unknown proteins, and then release signalling molecules, usually histamine, when they find them. What is the function of histamine? Histamines make your blood vessels more permeable, which allows a lot of fluid to flow to the affected area and brings a lot of white blood cells. This is what causes inflammation. What is an allergic reaction? Why do we take antihistamines? An allergic reaction is when our body over-reacts to harmless substances. We take antihistamines to suppress the histamine triggers and stop them from over-reacting. What is another name for white blood cells? Why are they awesome?
White blood cells are also known as leukocytes. They are awesome because they can travel to almost anywhere in your body and can signal to capillary cells to open a gap between the cells, a process called diapedesis.
Innate Immune System

It attacks everything that it perceives as a threat. Match the each term with its definition. phagosytosis phagocytes natural killer cells phagocytes dendritic cells neutrophils macrophages
Comes from the greek meaning eating. Specific to the innate immune system, they are any type of cell that ingests microorganisms through the process of __ phagosytosis ____. They can chase down invading cells, grab them and ingest them. Member of the phagocytes, they move quickly around the bloodstream to get to the action. Once they kill an invading microbe, they die and collect together into pus. The biggest and baddest of the phagocytes, they do not travel a lot. Instead, they hang out in your various organs (like bodyguards). They can kill invaders and detect when one of your cells has gone rogue and kill those too. They can eat up to 100 bacteria before they die. The only phagocyte that destroys other human cells. It goes around to other cells, checking that they are still producing a special protein on their surface (MHC 1). When it finds a cell that has stopped producing this protein, it binds with it and dissolves it membrane, effectively killing it. Type of phagocyte that hangs out on the surface of your body. They eat pathogens and carry information about them to your spleen or lymph nodes.
neutrophils
macrophages
natural killer cells
dendritic cells
Acquired Immune System
Has to learn everything it can about every pathogen it interacts with, stores that information, and then use it to invent defenses against them. Antigens: anything that causes your immune system to ID a pathogen and create an antibody against it. Antibodies are not cells, they are highly specialized proteins. They cannot kill invaders themselves. They can swarm all over the invader, making it harder for the invader to move, excrete toxins or infiltrate healthy cells; but more often they serve as tags by attaching themselves to the invader and signaling nearby phagocytes. The acquired immune system also has its own type of white blood cells, called lymphocytes which target specific pathogens that they already know about. There are two major types of lymphocytes (T Cells and B Cells) because we have two different types of acquired immunity (cell-mediated response and hormonal response).
T Cells
Originate in your bone marrow Migrate and mature in the thymus gland Cell-mediated response For when cells are already infected
B Cells
Originate in your bone marrow Mature in your bone marrow
Hormonal Response For when the infection is only in the bodys fluid
Practice Questions
1. What is the function of the immune system? The immune system performs specific defense against agents, the antigens, that are foreign or harmful to the body.
2. Which transplant method would prevent the rejection of tissue after and organ transplant? Explain why. a. Using organs cloned from the cells of the patient b. Using organs produced by genetic engineering to get rid of all proteins in the donated organs c. Using organs only from pigs or monkeys d. Using an organ donated by a close relative because the proteins will always be identical to those of the recipient. Answer: 1 If the organ is made of cells from the patients body, then the immune system will recognize the cells and the innate immune system will not attack them with phagocytes.
3. How does a vaccination against a disease help to prevent it? The body is injected with a small amount of weakened pathogen, so that our body can more easily fight it off. Once our acquired immune system fights off the pathogen, it is stored in our memory T cells and we can fight it off more easily if we see those pathogens again.
4. You get a splinter in your thumb. Explain what happens as your body fights off the bacteria that have probably come through your skin along with the splinter. The cells are not yet infected, the pathogen is merely in the bodys fluid. The innate immune system detects an intruder and send phagocytes to fight them off. Neutrophils travel to the site to ingest the invaders and kill them, because neutrophils are the quickest moving cells.
5. What is inflammation? Inflammation is the initial response of the unspecific defense system versus aggressions against the body. During inflammation a series of unspecific leukocytes present in the circulation are attracted to the injury site in an attempt to destroy harmful agents and to isolate the affected region of the tissue.

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THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Innate Immune System

natural killer cells

Acquired Immune System

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