In last article, we zoomed in on the battle at the scratch site and how our innate immunity responds to it. You can read or preview the battle here:-
Innate immunity, also called natural immunity or native immunity, is always present in healthy individuals (hence the term innate), prepared to block the entry of microbes and to rapidly eliminate microbes (villains) that do succeed in entering host tissues. The battle we previously read its all magic done by “Innate Immunity”.
But our castle (your body) has another division of defenders, and today we’re introducing them.
Our castle’s (Your own body) defence system divides into two categories:-
· Innate Immunity (Natural Immunity)
· Adaptive Immunity (Specific Immunity or Acquired Immunity)
Following is just differentiation analogy, to understand both defence system better and we will talk about science behind it in upcoming posts.
Innate vs. Adaptive: The Superhero Squad Analogy
(Since I dont know how table forms in substack, I’ve pasted it the word file photo)
A deeper look at Adaptive Immune system:-
Adaptive Immunity is the more advance and highly trained division which requires expansion and differentiation of lymphocytes (Microscopic superhero)[you can give your superhero name].
In innate immunity, the first line of defense is provided by epithelial barriers of the skin and mucosal tissues and by cells and natural antibiotics present in epithelia, all of which function to block the entry of microbes.
Any substance specifically recognized by lymphocytes or antibodies is called an “antigen”. Once adaptive immunity spots an antigen, it can tailor make antibodies to neutralize it and even call in reinforcements from the innate immune system.
For example, antibodies can stick to invading microbes like glue. This makes them irresistible targets for phagocytes (cells from the innate team), which then engulf and destroy them. The two systems work hand in hand innate immunity starts the fight, and adaptive immunity finishes it with precision.
Following is the illustration (still trying harder, adapted from Basic Immunology fifth edition). Just remember that Innate Immunity takes immediate response against microbial invasion, and Adaptive Immunity undergoes training and develops and then kill the supervillains.
References:
Parham, P., & Parham, P. (2014). The Immune System (4th ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781317511571
Kuby Immunology Judy A. Owen, Jenni Punt, Sharon Stranford
Basic Immunology (Fifth edition), by Abul K. Abbas, Andrew H. Lichtman and Shiv Pillai.
You can read previous Immunology quests here:- Thanks!!!!!
This was an interesting read again.
The illustration is understandable and great..
Very well explained.!!