Our immune system involves a whole bunch of different
tissue groups, organ systems and specialized and widely
distributed defense cells and the join forces to perform
all the defense functions your body depends on to keep
you alive. Two types of immunity —INNATE
(NONSPECIFIC) DEFENSE SYSTEM and the ADAPTIVE
(SPECIFIC) DEFENSE SYSTEM
Innate immunity refers to nonspecific defense
mechanisms that come into play immediately or within
hours of an antigen's appearance in the body. These
mechanisms include external barricades such as skin
and mucous membranes, and internal defenses such as
phagocytes, antimicrobial proteins and immune
system cells that attack foreign cells in the body.
Under our EXTERNAL BARRICADES we have our skin
and mucous membranes. Our SKIN acts as a physical
barrier keeps out all manner of malevolent
microorganisms. And our MUCOUS MEMBRANES also
provide physical barrier because they line any cavity
that opens up into the germy outside world.
but not only our skin and mucosa provide simple
physical protection, they also have chemical defenses
against pathogens.
When pathogens enter the body, the innate immune
system responds with a variety of internal defenses.
These include firing up a fever, releasing chemical
signals, causing inflammation, or other defensive tactics
that help identify and attack infectious invaders
Some of the first defensive cells on the scene are your
phagocytes. Their name literally means “to eat”, they
indiscriminately chase down intruders and devour them
up. Phagocytes have different varieties: First we got
Neutrophils, which is the most abundant type of our
white blood cell, they self-destruct after devouring a
pathogen, and you probably have seen piles of their
dead body because that is what pus is made out of.
Next is the macrophages they are large, bigger and
tougher phagocytic cell. They’re derived from monocyte
white-blood cells that have moved out of the blood
stream to occupy tissues. And some macrophages are
free types that patrol tissues looking for malevolent
microorganisms while others are fixed, attached to
fibers in specific organs devouring anything suspicious
that passes by.
When a macrophage sees a new bacterium coming
along, it snares it using cytoplasmic extensions, pulls it,
completely engulfs it, digests it and spits the rest out,
and unlike neutrophils it can con this over and over
again without self-destructing.
But not all of our defense cells are phagocytic, we also
got the NATURAL KILLER CELLS. The natural killer cells
patrol your blood and lymph looking for abnormal cells
and are unique that they can kill your own cells if they
are infected with viruses or have become cancerous
A normal healthy cell contains special protein on its
surface called MHC1 or Major Histocompatibility
Complex, but if the cell is infected it stops making that
protein. And if a natural killer cell detects a defective
cell, it doesn’t swallow it whole like a macrophage, it
pokes it with an enzyme that triggers apoptosis, or
programmed cell death.
Inflammatory response
Uses chemicals to get the message across and senses
redness, swelling, heat, and pain. For example, in an
event of injury, specialized mast cells in your connective
tissue send out histamine molecules. Histamine causes
vasodilation which creates redness and heat at the site
of the injury, these thing might freak you out a little but
they’re actually signs that you are healing—the
increased temperature, for example, ratchets up your
metabolic rates so they can repair themselves faster.
Meanwhile, histamines and other inflammatory
chemicals also increase the permeability of blood
vessels causing nearby capillaries to release protein-rich
fluids. This causes swelling, which again is actually a
good thing, because that leaked protein helps clot blood
and form scabs , while the lymphatic system sucks up
and filters that extra fluid, cleaning it up before putting
it back into the bloodstream.
And of course an inflamed knee is going to attract
phagocytes, which find it easier to escape your now
leaky capillaries, and lymphocytes that are also flowing
freely helping destroy pathogens while also cleaning up
dead-cell wreckage.
During all this, the neutrophils have been doing their
best, but they were first to arrive, so by this time
they’re starting to die in heaps. The neutrophils are
triggered when the injured knee-skin cells release
chemicals that begun leukocytosis- the release of
neutrophils from the bone marrow where they’re
made, into the bloodstream. To attract the neutrophils
into the damaged area, inflamed endothelial cells in the
capillaries send out chemicals that provides direction to
a target or destination, and when the neutrophils arrive,
they cling to the capillary walls near the injury, flatten
themselves out and squeeze through the vessel walls to
get to work.
Then the large monocytes roll up in the battle and
transforms into macrophages, replacing the first line of
now-dead neutrophils and basically just eating up any
lingering enemies.
now when we get nasty viruses, sometimes our
defenses system gets overrun, when white blood cells
and macrophages run into more foreign invaders than
they can handle, they let loose pyrogen chemicals that
tap the hypothalamus and raise your body’s
thermostat , calling in a systematic fever to burn
everything. The resulting temperature rise increases the
metabolism of your cells so that they can heal faster.