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Summary of the Human Immune System

 

            Scientific understanding of infectious diseases and different types of pathogens, has never been so extensive in the entire era of human beings. We have not only been able to identify different types of pathogens, but our body's defense mechanisms against them. The immune system has been thoroughly explored by scientists and they have been able to identify its ingenuous defense mechanisms to protect our body from these virulent pathogens. Scientists have identified two different types of defensive responses due to the entry and establishment of a pathogen inside our bodies. They have divided the responses into nonspecific responses and specific responses. .
             Our bodies contain three lines of defenses. The first line of defense is the epithelial tracts, the second line of defense is nonspecific responses (Innate Immune System), and the third line of defense is specific responses (Adaptive Immune System). I am going to focus on how nonspecific responses can influence a pathogens' entry and development inside a human beings body. The innate immune system is a collaboration of white blood cells and plasma proteins. The responses produces by the innate immune system are ubiquitous and generalized, which gives them the name nonspecific response. These responses do not target any specific cell types or pathogens. Defending leukocytes are one type of a nonspecific response. There are three types of defending leukocytes: macrophages, neutrophils, natural killer cells. These defending leukocytes are like the right hand man of the immune system. They function by using a very specific form of endocytosis called phagocytosis.
             Macrophages initiate phagocytosis by the attachment of pathogen-associated molecular patterns. These leads to the macrophage engulfing the foreign particle/pathogen and stops the pathogen from establishing inside the body. Neutrophils are the most abundant type of WBC and are another form of phagocytes that carry out microorganism engulfment.


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