47.2 Specific Defenses, The Immune System: Chapter 47: The Body's Defense Systems

47.
2 SPECIFIC
DEFENSES, THE
IMMUNE SYSTEM
Chapter 47: The body’s Defense Systems
SOMETIMES PATHOGENS BREAK THROUGH
THE NONSPECIFIC DEFENSES. IN
RESPONSE, THE BODY BEGINS ITS THIRD
LINE OF DEFENSE – A RESPONSE
SPECIFICALLY AT THE PATHOGEN.
Identify and Identify and describe the parts of the immune
describe system.
Explain how the immune system recognizes

Explain
pathogens.
Student Compare
Compare the actions of T cells and B cells in
Objectives the immune system.
Relate Relate vaccination to immunity.
Distinguish between allergy, asthma, and

Distinguish
autoimmune disease.
The Immune
System
◦ The immune system, the white blood cells
and tissues that recognize and attack foreign
substances in the body, provides the body’s
specific defenses.
◦ The immune system fights pathogens and
spread of cancers.
◦ The tissues include the bone marrow, thymus,
lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils, and adenoids.
◦ The white blood cells of the immune system
are called lymphocytes.
Parts of Immune
System
◦ Bone marrow makes billions of new lymphocytes
needed by the body every day.
◦ The thymus is a gland located above the heart that
produces a special kind of lymphocyte.
◦ Lymph nodes, located throughout the body along the
vessels of lymphatic system, contain lymphocytes.
Lymph nodes collect pathogens from the lymph and
expose them to lymphocytes.
◦ The spleen is the largest lymphatic organ in the body.
It stores healthy blood cells, breaks down aging red
blood cells, and helps develop lymphocytes and other
types of WBCs.
◦ The spleen also collects pathogens from the blood,
and the lymphocytes in the spleen attack these trapped
pathogens.
◦ The adenoids and tonsils are masses of lymph tissue
found in the nose and throat. The tonsils also signal
immune response.
Types of
Lymphocytes
◦ There are two types of
lymphocytes:
◦ B lymphocytes are made in the
bone marrow and complete their
development there.
◦ T lymphocytes are also made in
the bone marrow but complete
their development only after
traveling to the thymus.
Recognizing Pathogens
◦ Lymphocytes can provide specific
defenses because they recognize
foreign invaders.
◦ An antigen is any substance that the
immune system can recognize and
react with.
◦ Almost any molecule that is not a
natural part of an individual’s body
can act as a foreign antigen.
◦ When lymphocytes recognize an
antigen, they bind with it and start a
specific attack called an immune
response.
How do lymphocytes
identify antigens?
◦ A lymphocyte has unique receptor proteins all
over the surface of its cells membrane.
◦ These receptor protein recognize and bind to
antigens that match their three-dimensional
shape.
◦ The surface of a bacterial cell, for instance, can
be covered with many different kinds of
molecules, each of which can function as an
antigen and cause lymphocytes to react.
◦ All of the receptors of a lymphocyte are the
same shape or type, thus bind with one kind of
antigen.
◦ The immune system makes billions of different
kinds of lymphocytes.
◦ Macrophages engulf the pathogen and display the viral antigens. Then receptor
proteins in helper T cells bind to the viral antigen, causing the macrophage to
Immune release interleukin-1. Interleukin-1 (Il-1) activates helper T cells, which then release
Interleukin-2 (Il-2).
Response ◦ Then the immune response is a two-part assault on a pathogen:
◦ The cell-mediated immune response
◦ The humoral immune response
◦ These responses happen at the same time and require specialized lymphocytes
called a helper T cell.
Cell-Mediated
Immune Response
◦ More than one type of T cell carries out the
cell-mediated immune response.
◦ Il-2 stimulates the further production of
helper T cells, that in turn release even more
Il-2, allowing T cells to divide even faster.
◦ Il-2 is also responsible for stimulating the
production of cytotoxic T cells (killer T
cells), which recognize and destroy cells that
have been infected by the pathogen. These
cells have the antigen on their surface.
◦ Cytotoxic T cells:
◦ Kill by making a hole in cell membrane
◦ Kill cancer cells
◦ Attack parasites and foreign tissues
Humoral Immune
Response
◦ The humoral immune response involves that action of
B cells.
◦ The release of Il-2 stimulates B cells that have receptors
that are complementary to the antigen to divide and
change into plasma cells.
◦ Plasma cells are highly specialized cells that make
defensive proteins called antibodies that are released
into the blood.
◦ An antibody binds to a specific antigen or inactivates
or destroys toxins. Antibodies are Y-shapes molecules.
◦ Plasma cells can make up to 30,000 antibody molecules
per second.
◦ Antibodies bind to pathogens, but do not destroy them.
Antibodies inactivate the pathogen or cause the
destruction by the nonspecific defenses.
Primary and Secondary Immune Responses
◦ When an infection is overcome; some memory cells remain in the body
throughout an individual’s life.
◦ Memory cells are lymphocytes that will not respond the first time that they meet
with an antigen or invading cell, but will recognize and attack that antigen or
invading cell during later infections.
Immunity and
Vaccination
◦ Immunity is the ability to resist
an infectious disease.
◦ The body can undergo a primary
immune response and survive the
disease
◦ Vaccination is the introduction of
antigens into the body.
Vaccines
◦ A vaccine is a solution that contain a
dead or weakened pathogen or material
from a pathogen.
◦ With the antigens present the body will
produce a primary immune response.
◦ The memory cells that remain after the
primary immune response can provide
a quick secondary immune response if
the antigen ever enters the body again.
Problems of
the Immune
System
◦ Sometimes the
immune system
reacts to otherwise
harmless antigens
in ways that can be
harmful:
1. Allergies
2. Asthma
3. Autoimmune
Diseases
Allergies
◦ An allergy is a physical response to an
antigen.
◦ The antigen can be a common substance
that produces little or no response in the
general population.
◦ Examples: pollen, animal dander, dust
mites, food, and fungal spores.
◦ Most allergies are mild, but some can
be life-threatening.
◦ Many symptoms of an allergy result
from the release of histamine. The drug
antihistamine can counteract the effects.
◦ Allergies can also trigger asthma, a respiratory
disorder that causes bronchioles to narrow. Asthma
attacks occur when the muscles covering the
Asthma bronchioles overreact to substances in the air.
◦ Symptoms: difficulty breathing, shortness of breath,
wheezing, and coughing.
◦ Autoimmune diseases are a disease in which the immune system attacks
Autoimmune the organism’s own cells is called an autoimmune disease.
◦ Lymphocytes that recognize and react to the body’s own cells are usually
Diseases eliminated during development, before they become functional.
◦ In rare cases the immune system does respond to the body’s own cells,
attacking them as if they were pathogens.
1. Describe the functions of the spleen and of the bone
marrow.
2. What is an antigen?
3. How does the role of B cells in the immune response
differ from that of helper T cells?
4. Explain how vaccination stimulates immunity to a
Review disease.
5. Name one similarity and one difference between
Questions autoimmune diseases and allergies.
6. Explain how B cells depend on T cells.
7. “A person who has just recovered from a cold cannot
get the flu.” Is this statement true? Explain your
reasoning.
8. Would vaccine research be useful in preventing
autoimmune diseases? Explain your reasoning.

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47.

Explain how the immune system recognizes

Objectives the immune system.

Relate Relate vaccination to immunity.

Distinguish between allergy, asthma, and

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