As to the term immunity, there is a wide and more narrow its interpretation. I.I.
Mechnikov interpreted it widely as an opposition of organism to
... [Show More] infection,
independently of its primer or repeated development. По этой интерпретации this
opposition includes such non-specific mechanisms as barriers (including skin and
mucous membranes) and especially phagocytosis for which discovery Mechnikov
became a Nobel Price Winner. As to инфекционистов they нередко interpret immunity
more узко as a resistance to the repeated entrance of the same infection. Иммунными
называют людей переболевших заразной болезнью и невосприимчивых к повторному
заболеванию. Их использовали на эпидемиях чумы, холеры и для ухода за больными.
Modern immunology interprets immunological reactivity as exclusively specific
immune mechanisms, as a function of thymus, B- and T-lymphocytes, as a resistance
to any genetically foreign information but not only infectious. In this chapter the latter
conception of immunological reactivity is accepted.
A resistance to an infection is determined by some mechanisms. They are
Passive (biological barriers),
Active (phagocytosis, activity of the immune cells),
Nonspecific (barriers, phagocytosis, interferon and other BAS),
Specific (antibody formation and a cooperation of B- and T-lymphocytes).
For mastering the pathology of immunological reactivity it is necessary to
remember the following knowledge received from the disciplines studied earlier.
• Concept about an antigen as a genetically foreign information, which must be
rejected by immune system.
• Structure of immune system which consists of the central and peripheral organs.
Thymus and bone marrow are central ones. Peripheral organs are a spleen, lymph
nodes, tonsils. The movable elements of immune system are B- and T-lymphocytes.
Monocytes represent antigen to lymphocytes.
• Genesis of B- and T-lymphocytes (origination, maturation, differentiation) which
includes the following processes:
B- and T-lymphocytes are originated from the common steam-cells of
the bone marrow. Their father maturation and differentiation are different.
B-lymphocytes maturate in the bone marrow of adults.
T-lymphocytes maturate in the thymus and differentiate into some
subpopulations - T-helpers, T-suppressors, T-effectors (which after their
activation transform into T-killers), memory cells. Существуют natural killers
(NK), which use as receptors the antigens of major histocompatibility
complex.
• The difference between functions of B- and T-lymphocytes is the following – [Show Less]