The immune system is a system of defence that protect the animals from being diseased. It is composed of molecules and cells that works in concert to eliminate or neutralize the foreign pathogenic microbes or molecules that have invaded the animal's body. The system is diverse and highly complex.
Functionally, the immune response can be divided into two phases; namely recognition pahes and response phase. In recognition phase the immune system is highly specific in the sense that it can distinguish pathogens and discriminate between the foreign molecules and body's own cells and proteins. Response phase follows recognition, after the immune system has recognised the foreign molecules it respond by eliminating or neutralizing the organism. This is called effector response. When the body is encountering the organism for the second time the immune response is much more stronger than the previuos one, so the system eliminates the pathogen and prevent disease. This is called memory response
Immunity in vertebrates is divided into two, the innate immunity (primitive),which is existing in an animal's body, and the adaptive immunity which is the evolved system of specific response. The two works together to provide a high degree of protection.
In some cases, the immune system fails to protect the body as a consequense of some deficiency in its components; at other times it becomes an aggressor and turns against its own host. This introduces the concept of autoimmunity.
Historical perspective of Immunology
The term immunity originates from a Latin word immunis meaning "exempt". Thus, immunity literally means the state of protection from infectious diseases.
Edward Jenner, an English physician in 1798, convinced by the fact that milkmaids who had contracted the mild disease cowpox were subsequently immune to smallpox, he thought that introduction of fluid from a cowpox pustule into people (i.e. inoculation) might confer protection from smallpox. He tested his idea by inoculating an eight years old boy with fluid from cowpox pustule and later he challenged the boy with smallpox, the boy did not develop smallpox. This was the beginning of studies on immunity.
Loius Pasteur, basing on the ideas of Jenner, was the person who coined the word vaccine (Latin, vacca, means "cow") in honor of Jenner's work with cowpox inoculation. He did his experiment by injecting chickens with an old culture af bacterium thought to cause fowl cholera, the chickens became ill but later they recoverd. Again he injected the same chickens with a freshly grown culture of the bacterium, the chickens were completely protected from the disease. Pasteur hypothesized and proved that aging had weakened the virulence of the pathogen, and that such an attenuated strain might be administered to confer protection against the disease. He called the attenuated strain vaccine.
Pasteur did another experiment, he attenuated the bacterium causing anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) by heat and inoculated into one group of sheep and left other group uninoculated. He then challenged the two groups of sheep with unattenuated bacterium. The group of sheep that were previuosly inoculated with attenuated bacterium survived and while sheep from the other group all died.
In 1885, Pasteur administered his firdt vaccine to a human, a young boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The boy, Joseph Meister, was inoculated with a series of attenuated rabies virus preparations, and he lived. These experiments marked the evolution of the displine of immunology.
Functionally, the immune response can be divided into two phases; namely recognition pahes and response phase. In recognition phase the immune system is highly specific in the sense that it can distinguish pathogens and discriminate between the foreign molecules and body's own cells and proteins. Response phase follows recognition, after the immune system has recognised the foreign molecules it respond by eliminating or neutralizing the organism. This is called effector response. When the body is encountering the organism for the second time the immune response is much more stronger than the previuos one, so the system eliminates the pathogen and prevent disease. This is called memory response
Immunity in vertebrates is divided into two, the innate immunity (primitive),which is existing in an animal's body, and the adaptive immunity which is the evolved system of specific response. The two works together to provide a high degree of protection.
In some cases, the immune system fails to protect the body as a consequense of some deficiency in its components; at other times it becomes an aggressor and turns against its own host. This introduces the concept of autoimmunity.
Historical perspective of Immunology
The term immunity originates from a Latin word immunis meaning "exempt". Thus, immunity literally means the state of protection from infectious diseases.
Edward Jenner, an English physician in 1798, convinced by the fact that milkmaids who had contracted the mild disease cowpox were subsequently immune to smallpox, he thought that introduction of fluid from a cowpox pustule into people (i.e. inoculation) might confer protection from smallpox. He tested his idea by inoculating an eight years old boy with fluid from cowpox pustule and later he challenged the boy with smallpox, the boy did not develop smallpox. This was the beginning of studies on immunity.
Loius Pasteur, basing on the ideas of Jenner, was the person who coined the word vaccine (Latin, vacca, means "cow") in honor of Jenner's work with cowpox inoculation. He did his experiment by injecting chickens with an old culture af bacterium thought to cause fowl cholera, the chickens became ill but later they recoverd. Again he injected the same chickens with a freshly grown culture of the bacterium, the chickens were completely protected from the disease. Pasteur hypothesized and proved that aging had weakened the virulence of the pathogen, and that such an attenuated strain might be administered to confer protection against the disease. He called the attenuated strain vaccine.
Pasteur did another experiment, he attenuated the bacterium causing anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) by heat and inoculated into one group of sheep and left other group uninoculated. He then challenged the two groups of sheep with unattenuated bacterium. The group of sheep that were previuosly inoculated with attenuated bacterium survived and while sheep from the other group all died.
In 1885, Pasteur administered his firdt vaccine to a human, a young boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The boy, Joseph Meister, was inoculated with a series of attenuated rabies virus preparations, and he lived. These experiments marked the evolution of the displine of immunology.
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Hello
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