8.7 - The Immune System

Physical and chemical barriers

• The body's first line of defence is a set of barriers that stop pathogens getting inside in the first place.
• These work against many different pathogens rather than one in particular, so they are described as non-specific.

How the skin defends the body

• Physical barrier - The skin covers most of the body and acts as a barrier that pathogens cannot pass through.
• Antimicrobial secretions - It secretes oils and antimicrobial substances that kill pathogens resting on its surface.
• Blood clotting - If the skin is cut, the blood clots quickly to seal the wound, keeping microorganisms out as well as stopping blood loss.
• Skin flora - Healthy skin is covered by harmless microorganisms that compete with pathogens and make it harder for them to survive there.

Phagocytosis

• When pathogens get past the body's barriers and into the body, the white blood cells of the immune system destroy them.
• White blood cells travel in the blood and move into the tissues, constantly patrolling for pathogens.
• One of their main defences is phagocytosis - carried out by white blood cells called phagocytes.

How a phagocyte destroys a pathogen

1. The phagocyte tracks down a pathogen and binds to it.
2. Its flexible membrane changes shape and wraps right around the pathogen, engulfing (surrounding) it and taking it inside the cell.
3. Enzymes inside the phagocyte break the pathogen down and destroy it.

Key features of phagocytosis

• Non-specific - The same phagocyte can engulf many different kinds of pathogen, rather than acting against one in particular.
• Works alongside antibodies - Phagocytes more easily find and engulf pathogens that have been clumped together or marked by antibodies.

Antibodies, antitoxins and specificity

• As well as phagocytosis, white blood cells defend the body by producing antibodies and antitoxins.
• Every pathogen has unique molecules on its surface called antigens, and each antigen has a particular shape.
• White blood cells can tell the body's own cells from invaders:
  • Antigens on the body's own cells are recognised as "self".
  • Antigens on a pathogen are recognised as foreign, or "non-self".

How antibodies work

• When white blood cells called lymphocytes meet a foreign antigen, they start to produce proteins called antibodies.
• An antibody has a shape that is complementary to a particular antigen, fitting it like a key in a lock - so each antibody binds to only one type of antigen and won't lock onto any others.
• The lymphocyte that recognises the pathogen then divides many times to make clones of itself, all producing the same antibody - so antibodies are made rapidly, in large numbers, and are carried all round the body.
• The antibodies bind to the antigens on the pathogens. This can:
  • Destroy a pathogen directly, or
  • Clump pathogens together and mark them out so phagocytes find them more easily and engulf them.

How antitoxins work

• Some bacteria cause harm by releasing toxins - poisons that damage the body's cells.
• Antitoxins are molecules made by white blood cells that bind to and counteract these toxins, stopping them doing damage.