| Question | Answer |
| what are the three components of the immune system? | 1) physical barrier 2) innate immune response 3) adaptive immune response |
| what do macrophages do? | The macrophage is always ready to attack the invader and deliver information to organise the defense. |
| what do dendritic cells do? | The dendritic cell observes its environment. When something suspicious shows up, the DC collects information and shares it with T cells. |
| what do natural killer cells do? | Natural killer cells rapidly detect intruders and dispose of them. |
| advantages of innate immune response | -Present (and active) from birth -Quick to respond -Non-specific, same response for ANY pathogen |
| what are complement cascade made by? | -Liver -Tissue macrophages -Blood monocytes -Epithelial cells of the genitourinal tract and gastrointestinal tract) -Released into the blood |
| what is the most abundant component of the complement cascade? | C3 |
| what two fragments do C3 split into? | C3a and C3b |
| what is C3a? | anaphylatoxin, i.e. a danger signal |
| what is C3b? | very reactive; binds amino or OH groups |
| what is the function C3b? | C3b will bind to bacterial surfaces (this is known as opsonisation) |
| why do C3b bind to bacteria? | Many bacterial surfaces have amino or OH groups on display and C3b bind to amino acids or OH groups. |
| what are the three different pathways of the complement cascade? | 1) Classical 2) Alternative 3) Mannose-binding lectin |
| advantages of the Classical pathway? | -First to be discovered -Requires antibody |
| advantages of Alternative pathways? | -Antibody-independent -Probably evolved before the classical pathway |
| advantage of Mannose-binding lectin pathways? | -Recognizes carbohydrate patterns found on the surface of a large number of pathogenic microorganisms |
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