Introduction to the Immune System

 Immunology is a branch of biology that covers the study of immune systems

in all organisms

 Immunology deals with

 physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and

diseases

 malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders (such

as autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivities, immune deficiency,
and transplant rejection);

 physical, chemical, and physiological characteristics of the components of the

immune system
 Immunology has applications in numerous disciplines of medicine,
particularly in the fields of
 organ transplantation

 oncology

 rheumatology

 virology

 bacteriology

 parasitology

 psychiatry

 dermatology
 Immune system

 The immune system is a host defense system comprising many biological

structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease.

 To function properly, an immune system must detect a wide variety of agents,

known as pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, and distinguish them

from the organism's own healthy tissue.

 Immunity

 Immunity is defined as resistance to disease, specifically infectious disease.

 The collection of cells, tissues, and molecules that mediate resistance to

infections is called the immune system, and the coordinated reaction of these

cells and molecules to infectious microbes is the immune response.

 Innate and adaptive immunity

 Host defense mechanisms consist of innate immunity, which mediates the

initial protection against infections,

 and adaptive immunity, which develops more slowly and provides more

specialized and effective defense against infections

 Innate immunity

 Also called natural immunity or native immunity,

 present in healthy individuals, to block the entry of microbes and rapidly

eliminate microbes that do succeed in entering host tissues.

 The first line of defense in innate immunity is provided by epithelial barriers

and by cells present in epithelia, all of which function to block the entry of

microbes.
 If microbes do breach epithelia and enter the tissues or circulation, they are

attacked by phagocytes, specialized lymphocytes called natural killer cells,

and several plasma proteins, including the proteins of the complement system.

 All these mechanisms of innate immunity specifically recognize and react

against microbes.

 In addition to providing early defense against infections, innate immune

responses enhance adaptive immune responses against the infectious agents.

 Adaptive immunity

 Adaptive immunity is an immunity that occurs after exposure to an

antigen either from a pathogen or a vaccination.

 This part of the immune system is activated when the

innate immune response is insufficient to control an infection

 composed of specialized, systemic cells and processes that eliminates

pathogens by preventing their growth.

 Functions

 Recognition of specific "non-self" antigens in the presence of "self", during

the process of antigen presentation.

 Generation of responses that are tailored to maximally eliminate specific

pathogens or pathogen-infected cells.

 Development of immunological memory, in which pathogens are

"remembered" through memory B cells and memory T cells.

 Also called specific immunity or acquired immunity,

 Requires expansion and differentiation of lymphocytes in response to

microbes before it can provide effective defense

 Defense against infectious microbes additionally requires adaptive immune

responses, especially with microbes that are pathogenic for humans and may

have evolved to resist innate immunity.

 The adaptive immune system consists of lymphocytes and their products,

such as Antibodies.
 Lymphocytes vs Phagocytes

 Lymphocyte and phagocyte are two types of cells that mediate immune

responses in the body

 Phagocytes are cells that protect the body by ingesting harmful foreign

particles, bacteria, and dead or dying cells.

 Lymphocytes are white blood cells that are also one of the body's main types

of immune cells.

 They are made in the bone marrow and found in the blood and lymph tissue.
 The three types of lymphocytes are T cells, B cells, and natural killer cells.

 Phagocytes can be either macrophages, neutrophils, monocytes, dendritic cells

or mast cells. They destroy pathogens by phagocytosis.

 The job of B cells is to make antibodies, which are proteins produced by the

immune system to fight foreign substances known as antigens.

 The job of T cells is to help the body kill cancer cells and control the immune

response to foreign substances. They do this by destroying cells in the body

that have been taken over by viruses or become cancerous.

 A third type of lymphocyte, known as a natural killer or NK cell, comes from

the same place as B and T cells. NK cells respond quickly to several foreign

substances and are specialized in killing cancer cells and virus-infected cells.
 The main difference between lymphocytes and phagocytes is that

lymphocytes generate specific immune responses against pathogens whereas

phagocytes generate the same response to any pathogen.

 This means lymphocytes are the tools of the adaptive immunity whereas

phagocytes are the tools of innate immunity.

 Types of adaptive immunity

 The two types of adaptive immunity, humoral immunity and cell-

mediated immunity, are mediated by different cells and molecules

and provide defense against extracellular microbes and intracellular

microbes, respectively
 Humoral immunity

 Humoral immunity is mediated by proteins called antibodies, which are

produced by cells called B lymphocytes.

 Antibodies are secreted into the circulation and mucosal fluids

 They neutralize and eliminate microbes and microbial toxins that are present

outside of host cells, in the blood and in the lumens of mucosal organs, such

as the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts.

 One of the most important functions of antibodies is to stop microbes that

are present at mucosal surfaces and in the blood from gaining access to and

colonizing host cells and connective tissues.

 In this way, antibodies prevent infections from ever being established.

 Cell-mediated immunity

 Antibodies cannot gain access to microbes that live and divide inside

infected cells.

 Defense against such intracellular microbes is called cell-mediated immunity

because it is mediated by cells, which are called T lymphocytes.

 Some T lymphocytes activate phagocytes to destroy microbes that have been

ingested by the phagocytes into intracellular vesicles.

 Other T lymphocytes kill any type of host cells that are harboring infectious

microbes in the cytoplasm.

 Thus, the antibodies produced by B lymphocytes recognize extracellular

microbial antigens, whereas T lymphocytes recognize antigens produced by

intracellular microbes.

 Another important difference between B and T lymphocytes is that most T

cells recognize only protein antigens, whereas B cells and antibodies are

able to recognize many different types of molecules, including proteins,

carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and lipids.

 Immunity may be induced in an individual by infection or vaccination (active

immunity) or conferred on an individual by transfer of antibodies or

lymphocytes from an actively immunized individual (passive immunity).

 Active immunity

 In active immunity, an individual exposed to the antigens of a microbe

mounts an active response to eradicate the infection and develops resistance

to later infection by that microbe.

 Such an individual is said to be immune to that microbe, in contrast with a

naive individual, not previously exposed to that microbe’s antigens.

 Passive immunity

 In passive immunity, a naive individual receives antibodies or cells (e.g.,

lymphocytes, feasible only in genetically identical animals) from another

individual already immune to an infection; for the lifetime of the transferred

antibodies or cells, the recipient is able to combat the infection.

 Passive immunity is therefore useful for rapidly conferring immunity even

before the individual is able to mount an active response, but it does not

induce long-lived resistance to the infection.

 The only physiologic example of passive immunity is seen in newborns,

whose immune systems are not mature enough to respond to many pathogens

but who are protected against infections by acquiring antibodies from their

mothers through the placenta and breast milk.

 Properties of adaptive immune responses

 Several properties of adaptive immune responses are crucial for the

effectiveness of these responses in combating infections

 Specificity

 The adaptive immune system is capable of distinguishing among millions of

different antigens or portions of antigens.

 Specificity is the ability to distinguish between many different antigens.

 For example, immunization with inactivated poliovirus only protects against

poliomyelitis, not against viral influenza

 Diversity

 The diversity of the lymphocyte collection, which enables the immune system

to respond to a vast number and variety of antigens,

 Memory

 The immune system mounts larger and more effective responses to repeated

exposures to the same antigen.

 The response to the first exposure to antigen, called the primary immune

response, is mediated by lymphocytes called naive lymphocytes that are

seeing antigen for the first time.

 The term naive refers to these cells being immunologically inexperienced, not

having previously responded to antigens.

 Subsequent encounters with the same antigen lead to responses called

secondary immune responses that usually are more rapid, larger, and better

able to eliminate the antigen than primary responses.

 Secondary responses are the result of the activation of memory lymphocytes, which

are long-lived cells that were induced during the primary immune response.

 Immunologic memory optimizes the ability of the immune system to combat

persistent and recurrent infections, because each encounter with a microbe generates

more memory cells and activates previously generated memory cells.

 Memory also is one of the reasons why vaccines confer long-lasting protection

against infections.
 Clonal expansion
 Adaptive immune responses have other characteristics that are important for their functions.

 When lymphocytes are activated by antigens, they undergo proliferation, generating many

thousands of clonal progeny cells, all with the same antigen specificity.

 This process, called clonal expansion, rapidly increases the number of cells specific for the

antigen encountered, enabling few antigen-specific lymphocytes to serve their defensive

role
 Nonreactivity to self

 The immune system is able to react against an enormous number and variety

of microbes and other foreign antigens, but it normally does not react against

the host’s own potentially antigenic substances—so-called self antigens.

 This unresponsiveness to self is called immunological tolerance, referring to

the ability of the immune system to coexist with (tolerate) potentially antigenic

self molecules, cells, and tissues.