HOST DEFENSE

MECHANISMS
– ways in which the body protects itself
from pathogens

HOST’S LINES OF DEFENSE

NON-SPECIFIC HOST DEFENSE

MECHANISMS

(1) FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE

• Skin and Mucous Membranes
(Physical Barriers)
o Should be intact & unbroken
skin
o Very few pathogens can
invade the skin except
hookworms where they
penetrate the skin. Only
when the skin is cut,
abraded or burned that
pathogens gain entry

• Cellular and chemical factors

o Dry skin inhibits colonization
of pathogens
o Oily sebum from sebaceous
glands contain fatty acids
which are toxic to some
When a pathogen breaks thru the 1st pathogens
line, it will encounter 2nd line and so forth if o Perspiration / Sweating
the breach is continuous. First & Second flushes organisms that are
lines are nonspecific, meaning the body trapped on the pores and
attempts to destroy ALL types of substances from the skin. It contains
that are foreign to it and are deemed LYSOZYME enzyme which
harmful. Third line is very specific because degrades the peptidoglycan
we have special proteins called antibodies of bacterial cell walls.
and memory T-cells who have the ability to o Rapidly dividing mucosal
create memory specific for a particular cells aids in the rapid
pathogen. removal of attached
pathogen

MC3 (Lecture) CDU – CN A.Y ’20-’21 HOST DEFENSES

 • Microbial Antagonism phagocytes to locations where they are
o When an indigenous needed
microbiota prevents the
establishment of arriving ➢ INFLAMMATION
pathogens - Series of events in which the body
normally responds to local injury,
(2) SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE inflammation, bacteria and the like
• Nonspecific cellular and chemical - 3 major events:
responses (1) Vasodilation
• Complex sequence of events: fever, (2) Increased capillary permeability
interferons, complement system, (3) Accumulation of leukocytes in site of
inflammation, chemotaxis, injury
phagocytosis - Purpose is to localize infection and
promote healing.
➢ FEVER - 4 cardinal signs and symptoms:
- Pyrogens - substances that stimulate Redness, heat, swelling, pain
production of fever; may originate inside or
outside the body
- Outside = pathogens
produce endotoxins
- Inside = interleukin 1, a
cytokine that is produced by
WBC
- Fever slows the growth of certain
pathogens and kill some
- Detrimental effects: increased HR,
metabolic rate, caloric demand, dehydration
➢ PHAGOCYTOSIS
- carried out by phagocytes
➢ INTERFERONS
- Process of surrounding and engulfing
- Small, antiviral proteins produced by virus-
foreign material
infected cells
- 2 most important groups of phagocytes
- Interfere with viral replication
are macrophages and neutrophils
➢ COMPLEMENT SYSTEM
- Group of approx. 30 proteins that are
found in normal plasma
- Named as such because it is
complementary to the action of the immune
system
- One important function is OPSONIZATION
–facilitated by deposition of opsonin

➢ CYTOKINES
- Chemical mediators released by cells
Which enable cells to communicate each
other
- Act as chemical messengers in the
different systems in the body that recruit

MC3 (Lecture) CDU – CN A.Y ’20-’21 HOST DEFENSES

SPECIFIC HOST DEFENSE MECHANISM
/ 3RD LINE OF DEFENSE

MAJOR ARMS OF IMMUNE SYSTEM

(1) Humoral immunity
- Involves production of antibodies in
response to antigens and attack the
antigens that stimulated them
Since it stays in the blood, the person is
immune to a particular pathogen

(2) Cellular immunity

- Involves various cell types most especially
T-cells

4 BRANCHES OF HUMORAL IMMUNITY

MC3 (Lecture) CDU – CN A.Y ’20-’21 HOST DEFENSES