2. For simplicity, your book organizes your bodies defense mechanisms as "three lines of defense". Be familiar with each "line" and the function of each "line".
3. Defense lines one and two are referred to as "non-specific" while line three is referred to as "specific"; what mechanism or process is being referred to as specific or non-specific? How are "natural killer cells" and "cytotoxic T cells" similar; how are they fundamentally different?
4. Cells involved in the immune response are white blood cells. What are the different kinds? Where are they made?
5. The "third line of defense" includes several kinds of B-cells, T-cells, macrophages, etc. organized in (1) humoral immune response and (2) cell-mediated immune response. These two responses relate to (1) humoral response: stimulus can be a small "free" molecule (antigen) floating around in the blood vs. (2) cell-mediated response: stimulus can ONLY be a "foreign" molecule (antigen) attached to the membrane of another cell (antigen presenting cell). B-cells are part of the humoral response pathway, capable of responding to "free" antigens. T-cells are part of the cell-mediated pathway, capable ONLY of responding to antigen presenting cells.
6. T-cells have evolved to respond to our own cells when they have either: (1) become infected by some virus, or (2) become "strangers" (i.e. loose the molecular identity signaling relation to self).
7. Regarding the humoral immune response pathway, be familiar with the following: antigen, antibody, immunoglobulin, clonal selection, B-cell, plasma antigen producing cells, memory B-cells.
8. What is the basic structure of IgG antibody? What are the ways in which an IgG antibody can inactivate antigens?
9. Regarding the cell-mediated immune response pathway, be familiar with the following: antigen, macrophage, antigen presenting cell, helper T-cell (Th-cell), cytotoxic T-cell (Tc-cell), Memory Tc-cells, Memory Th-cells.
10. Specificity of the "third line of defense" involves receptors. B-cell receptors are proteins, and therefore gene products, with nearly identical structure to the IgG molecules that B-cell progeny will later secrete. Following activation by a specific antigen and subsequent clonal selection, B-cell progeny produce free IgG antibodies with nearly the same structure as their receptors. There are more than 1,000,000 different B-cell receptors, recognizing an equivalent number of different potential antigens. However, there are only about 100,000 different genes in us. How then, is such diversity of B-cell receptor generated?
11. T-cells also have receptors, like B-cells and with similar diversity. A difference between B-cells and T-cells is that B-cell progeny produce "free" antibodies while activated T-cells either produce hormones (interleukins) which activate other responses or produce cytotoxic progeny which kill antigen presenting cells. T-cells do not produce "free" antibodies.
12. HIV kills indirectly, by weakening the immune system (acquired immune deficiency). How does it weaken the immune system? What part of the immune pathway does the AIDS virus target?
13. What is MHC? How is MHC involved in identifying self? If humans have 20 MHC genes and there are 100 different alleles for each gene, how many different human identities are possible?
14. What is "complement"? Where does it come from? How does it act?
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