BioTechnology | Immune system | Immune System Basic Concepts: Your Natural Defense and Body Cleanser

BioTechnology | Immune system

Immune System Basic Concept

(Your Natural Defense and Body Cleanser)

What is Immune System and how does it works?

In this post, I will explain some basic definitions or terminologies associated with Immune System, which will simplify the concepts of science and Biotechnology students.

IMMUNE SYSTEM: 

The main word which has left students with sleepless nights and anxiety before exams is nothing but a simple machine.

Yes, you heard it right. It is a machine but the difference is just it is working continuously in our body against all the infections and invading organisms.

Immune System

Various organs, tissues and network of cells work together continuously for proper working of this machine.

Now coming to “Immunization”, it's a bit different concept to understand.

Many students gets confused by its big pronunciation and take it as a complex entity with several scientific terms clubbed together.

Unlikely, it is just a simple process to strengthen our immune system.

I know some readers might be smiling after reading the immunization definition as it seems to be very simple.

Going back to the topic, now we will discuss about the “Ram and shyam” of  Immune System.

They are Immunogen and Antigen.

Firstly, i will briefly explain Immunogen. 
It is a molecule or a material which evokes or develops an immune response in our body.

However, Antigen is a protein molecule which gets fixed or binds with the immune response which is produced by an immunogen.

So, all of you please remember, Immunogen and Antigen are totally different concepts and should never be mixed with each other.

Moving on is the word which is known to every single person on this earth and that is ‘Antibody’.

Everybody has heard this word in their life at least once, but only a handful people are  there who correctly understand the concept.

Antibody is a Y shaped protein produced in our body which neutralizes pathogens like bacteria and viruses.

Antibody is also know as Immunoglobin(Ig) and in scientific term it is always called by this name only.

On a broad level, the body cells are of two types-

A) Red blood cells

B) White blood cells.

Since we are studying Immune System hence let's keep our focus towards the study of White blood cells here.

Majorly three types of white blood cells or lymphocytes works in our immunity process.

A)T cells, 
B) B cells 
C) Natural killer (NK) Cells.

T Cells:

They develop in Thymus and that is why they are known as T cells. 
It plays a major role in immune system by attacking foreign and virus infected cells.

The most striking feature of these cells is the receptors present on their cell surface.

The beauty of these cells are T cell receptors, which again is a very interesting topic and will discussed later in further coming posts.

B Cells:

They works as a production unit in our body.

These cells produce antibodies which bind to the antigen and neutralize or kill them.

They too have receptors on them, known as B cell receptors but the most important point to remember is “Each B cell makes a specific kind of antibody”.

So in simple language we can say that specificity is the charm of these cells.

Natural killer cells or (NK) cells:

Every human is born with these cells.

They protect our body from tumors and cells infected with viruses. They are activated or get started working by the chemical released from the damaged cells known as interferon.

Don't want to make this post so long. Briefly, these cells are just like our parents, teachers and well wishers. They guide us what is the difference between right and wrong.

Similarly these cells tells the difference between infected cells, tumors and normal cells.

We will cover the procedure of their working in the upcoming posts.

So let's wind up the topic here and based on your response I will draft my next post.

Hope this post Immune system basic concepts will help you to understand these basic topics. Please do like and comment your suggestions and appropriate topic/ queries to cover next. 


Thanks.