Role of Phagocytes in Innate or Nonspecific Immunity

Demo: Before we watched a video to enhance our learning, Neto showed us a demo to give us an introduction on this topic.

One of our first line of defenses is skin. Skin holds a substantial amount of oil that keeps pathogens out of the body. For this demo, our skin was the plastic wrap and the pathogen was an expo marker. The wrap's fabric kept the marker from breaking it. 

The second first line of defense is the mucous membrane. Mucous is a defense mechanism to also keep pathogens out of the body. When someone is sick, mucous is formed, which keeps the sections where pathogens could enter closed while the body does what it needs to do to remain healthy.

pH is the third first line of defense. The acidic levels can be adjusted in the stomach to keep the body healthy also. 

The immune system is used to keep out viruses, bacteria, parasites etc from entering the body; they're meant to keep the body healthy

pathogens: proteins, viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi

first line of defense: keep all of the pathogens out (non-specific/innate)
- skin is a first line of defense (oils)
- mucous membranes (acids)
- stomach (acids)

innate: natural

second line of defense: (non-specific/innate)
- inflammatory response - bringing stuff to the fight

phagocytes: a class of cell that can eat up pathogens; they have receptors that let them know when there is something bad near them
- the phagocytes will start to wrap itself around the pathogen until the pathogen is fully trapped
phagozome: the area in which the pathogen is once it has been engulfed by the phagocyte

non-specific immunity: the initial immune response reaction against foreign antigens

antigen: a toxin or foreign substance that induces an immune response

major hislocompatibility complex (MHC): they eat the foreign cells and take their proteins
- the MHC then hangs out on the eaten cell to make it clear that this one is foreign

innate: born with it
non-specific: targeting anything that is foreign