STUDY GUIDE on IMMUNE SYSTEM

Complete study guide questions on a weekly basis to stay on top of lecture

Readings from 3rd ed. Phelan textbook: Ch. 26 (Sections 26.1-26.3 and 26.5-26.12)

1. Students are responsible for learning the following immune system structures & functions on their own.
Be able to identify these structures on a figure as well (refer to PPT slides to double check answers).

Tonsils: secretes mucus to trap pathogens in the throat. pathogen trapper

o Trap pathogens

Method of killing pathogens:

Lysis: make the pathogen explode.

Phagocytes: WBC eats the pathogen.

o This tissue is by itself (not connected to any vessels)

o Three types of tonsils:

adenoids (pharyngeal tonsil)

Palatine tonsil (throat region on the sides)

Lingual tonsil (back of the tongue)

Tonsillitis (inflammation of the tonsil).

Difficult to swallow food

Difficult to breath difficulty sleeping

Rare now due to modern medicine

Lymph nodes: structures that store white blood cells

o Located in the: armpit; groin area; and neck
o During time of infection: the lymph nodes will swell because they are producing WBC.

Exercise will increase the circulation of WBCs throughout the lymph node.
This will increase recovery time.

o Dangerous if cancer cells get into the lymph node cancer cells are circulating
throughout the body.

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Lymph vessels: circulate lymph fluid (lymph = a clear fluid containing white blood cells)
o Exercise will increase the circulation of the lymph fluids.

Thymus: organ in front of the heart that is used for development of T cells
o Help with WBC production.
o Kids thymus is larger than adults, because adults immunity gets better.

Appendix: secretes mucus to trap pathogens in the colon

Spleen: an organ that is rich in white blood cells; it filters the blood to remove cell debris and
pathogens
o This is the blood filter (cleans out all of the germs and pathogens)

Mechanisms that filters: sponge-like filled with WBCs.

o Females have 5 litters of blood and male 6 litters.

o During sport or accident injuries:

a rupture in the spleen will lead to severe bleeding

splenectomy: removal of the spleen and tying off the blood vessels.

You can live without it, but you are more susceptible to being sick and
infections.

Bone marrow: site of blood cell production; makes red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets
o Bone marrow cancer:

red blood cells oxygen assistance machine

white blood cells susceptible to infection/sickness

clotting difficult to stop bleeding if injuries occur

o Bone marrow could be used for:

Conditions for bone marrow cancer

Blood disorders: sickle cell anemia (their bone marrow is not working properly)

o Common place for bone marrow extraction: *need to be really close match*
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Hip bone (preferred)

Head of the femur

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Looking at the immune system:

Types of living pathogen: bacteria, fungi, parasitic worms.

Types of non-living pathogen: virus and

o prions (infectious proteins mad cow disease) butchers should not cut into central
nervous system

They live in the nervous system.

Cause holes in the brain.

Two types of pathogens:

o Aerobic pathogens: these microbes need oxygen and generally stay on the surface (easy
to kill.
o Anaerobic pathogens: dont need oxygen and generally goes inside of your body
(difficult to kill)

(Killed by chemotherapy) White blood cells: kill pathogens and make sure they dont win.

Have a nucleus

Average lifespan of 1-week

Made everyday and die everyday.

(Killed by chemotherapy) Red blood cells: carry oxygen

Has a nucleus when they are in the bone marrowDo not have a nucleus when they are in the
blood stream.
o After losing the nucleus they are flat if looking from the side. This allows for more
surface area, which carries more oxygen.

Average lifespan of 3-4 months

Made everyday and die everyday.

(Killed by chemotherapy) Megakaryocyte: a cell with a nucleus that flakes off platelets, they are the
source for platelets.

Platelets: (cell fragments)- they are not cells. They allow for clotting to occur when a blood
vessel is broken. It is bad if they clot together inside of the blood vessel without any blood loss
leads to dangerous clots
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o Donating platelets: they extract the platelets from your red blood cells and give you the
blood back.
2. What is the function of the following 1st line of defense components? (28:00)
These are non-specific defenses They will kill anything that is a pathogenAlways active.
Components of 1st line
defense
a. Skin

Function
Physical barrier
These are the external defense (keep germs out of the body)
(If there is a cut in the skin physical barrier is broken move to 2nd
line of defense)

b. Mucous membranes that

secrete mucus

Mucous membranes (forms a blanket over the trachea): secrete mucus

c. Cilia

Moves the pathogens trapped in the mucus upward.

- Swallowing it goes into stomach HCL kills the pathogens
- Spitting it out excretes the pathogens through the mouth

Hair-like powered by
actin (cell movement) motor
protein

d. Acidic secretions

Traps the pathogens

*If the cilia cells die:

- pathogen builds up in the trachea
develop pneumonia (fluid, blood, or pus build up in lungs)
HCL secretes to kill off pathogens that goes into the stomach.
Females: vaginal tract is acidic to kill pathogens. This can make it
difficult for pregnancy, because it kills off sperm cells.

e. Lysozymes secreted in
tears, saliva, and sweat

Definition of lysozyme: Anti-bacterial proteins.

Target: bacteria
Killing method: Lysis (the cell explodes)

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3. What is the function of the following 2nd line of defense components?

These are non-specific defenses They will kill anything that is a pathogenAlways active
Phagocytosis: This is just the act of eating up the pathogen and bringing it into the WBCs cytoplasm but
it does not kill it yet.
Free-radicals (advantageous): hydrogen peroxide and superoxide. They are the toxins within the vesicles.
This is activated when the white blood cells need to kill the bacteria. (rips apart the cell and DNA)
Components of 2nd line defense
a. Phagocytic WBC: neutrophil
Most abundant

Function
Self-sacrificing. When you see white pus or pimples, this is a sign of
dead white blood cells.
Target: Pathogen
Killing method: phagocytosis
during this process the vesicle (fluid sac) with toxin breaks and
toxins are released into both the neutrophil (cell) and pathogen.
The neutrophil dies with the pathogen.

b. Phagocytic WBC: eosinophil

Target: Parasite (tape worm) The eosinophil will engulf it.

Killing method: phagocytosis (utilizes *superoxide 02-)

c. Phagocytic WBC: macrophage

Macrophage can kill pathogen and get rid of dead/damage body cells
(WBC&RBC)
Target: Pathogen
Killing method: phagocytosis. They do not break open the vesicles. The
vesicles engulf the bacteria and let the toxins kill it without ever releasing
the toxins into the cell.
After killing the pathogen, macrophage WBCs will go around the
body and display the current threat.

d. Interferon proteins produced

from infected body cells

Comes from an attack cells: It is a protein that is released so that

cells can talk with each other.

Alarm

Alarm system against the invasion of pathogens.

Before a cell dies, it will release interferon proteins to find all of the
healthy cells. Antiviral proteins: are produced by healthy cells,
and when the virus enters the cell, it can not replicate the cell will
not die from lysis.
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Hepatitis B: Attacks the liver.

They use inject interferons into those who had this disease. This
would stop the virus from replicating.
e. Natural killer (NK) cells that
release perforin molecules
Immunological surveillance
Lysis with perforin (bullet)

Target: Target our own cells that are diseased, cancerous, or virus.
Killing method: Lysis with the usage of perforin.
- They find the bad cell (abnormal looking), NK cells attaches to it.
- Cells without MHC (id card) attached to it will be recognized as a bad
cell.
- Cancerous cells will have abnormal body surface, which will trigger
NK cells to attach and release perforin molecules.
When you increase age, you will decrease your immune system. This is
why cancer becomes prevalent around age 50.

* Boosting the immune system = increase production of white blood cells.

- The presence of zinc will stop or get your sickness over quickly.
4. What is an antigen?

Any foreign substance that is going to trigger your immune system response.
o Any pathogen
o Any irritant (dust)
o Any allergen (pollen, dust mite droppings)

5. What is an antibody and what immune cell produces it?

Produced by B-cells antibody is a protein that is part of the line 3 defense.
6. Although antibodies cannot directly destroy pathogens or antigens in our bodies, they are still extremely
powerful in helping us combat illnesses and allergies. Identify two ways in which antibodies aid in the
specific immune response.
-neutralize pathogen (only surround it) it does not kill.
-mark the threat for destruction (call in WBCs to kill it)

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7. Compare and contrast the immune systems primary (first-time) response to a pathogen and its secondary
(future) response to the same pathogen using the graphs below. Be able to explain your answer.

During the first (primary response)the body does not produce enough antibodysickness (~1 week)
Secondary response: The body produces 3x more antibody sickness lasts about 2 hours
8. The 3rd and final line of defense consists of B and T lymphocytes. These cells focus their energy on
neutralizing or destroying specific pathogens flagged by the immune system as a whole. Complete the table.
Specific defense (special forces)requires activation time (3-5 (around 1 week) days to activate)
trained to destroy one specific pathogen at a time.
The one-week activation time (this is called B-cell training) it makes sure that the B-cell will not
bind to the cell too tightly, because this could lead to death to your cell.
*if 3rd line of defense fails you will get sick
3rd line of defense
cells
B cell
trained in bone
marrow

Immune function
Each B-cell is specialized to kill a specific pathogen or virus (1-week
activation)
For example: B-cell (HPV) releases antibodies to surround HPV virus. This
prevents it from attaching to your cells. Therefore, the virus is neutralized.
this calls for phagocytes in line 2 defense to engulf the virus.
This will not release without the coordination of helper T-cell.
Example: Hepatitis-B: the three shots series.
Possible blood test results after the three shots series:
1. Hepatitis B antibodies are present = immune.
2. Hepatitis B antibodies are not present = no immunity.

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Memory B cell

Created during 1st time exposure to a pathogen and used during re-exposure.
During 2nd response:
-You make three times the amount of antibodies, because you have been
exposed before.
Live for about 10-15 years.

This is the most important cell in line 3. The 3rd defense line coordinator.
1.After macrophage kills the antigen, it will display it throughout the body
and hope to run into the helper T-cell.
Helper T cell
Coordinator
trained in thymus

Function: makes sure that B-cell and Cytotoxic T cell are released when
pathogens or virus is present.
Destroys infected body cells (cancerous, virus infected) through
perforin(bullet) use and lysis.
-it will not activate without the coordination of helper T-cells.

Cytotoxic T cell

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9. What is the target cell of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)? Why does this disease eventually
devastate the immune system?
HIV virus targets the helper T-cell, which takes down all coordination of releasing (cytotoxic T-cell &
B-cell). At this point your body does not have a 3rd line defense.
Prescription of Antiviral medication: this does not kill the virus (its not living), but it helps stop the
replication of the it.
Problem: The human immunodeficiency virus alters to a different strain often. So this makes it difficult to
stop the virus. This is a never ending process.
10. What is the relationship between HIV and AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome)?

The reason why HIV progress to AIDS, is because it breaks down 3rd line of defense.

Problem:
transition stage no medication works to help the HIV virus
No 3rd stage defense (no CD4 cells (helper T-cells), no B-cells, no cytotoxic T-cells.

Signs of the AIDs stage:

o

Candidiasis (esophageal): yeast infection inside of the esophagus.

Tuberculosis: lung disease

Herpes virus 8: mouth or genitals.

Difference between HIV positive and AIDS:

HIV positive low viral load: this means that the virus is still under controlled.
AIDS stage high viral load low CD4 (helper T-cells) + candidiasis/tuberculosis/herpes.

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