A Double Feature!

Good afternoon! This week's blog is going to be a little longer than most. I was on a tour with my choir last week, and I was unable to write. So we started a new unit about immune systems. The immune system has a lot of key terms that you must understand to see how it functions. The immune system is: Interacting white blood cells that defend the body through self/nonself recognition, specificity, and memory. T and B cell antigen receptors ignore the body's own cells yet collectively recognize at least a billion specific threats. Some B and T cells formed in a primary response are set aside as memory cells for future battles with the same antigen. Immunity: The body's overall ability to resist and combat any substance foreign to itself. infection: Invasion and manipulation of a pathogen in a host. Disease follows if defenses are not mobilized fast enough; the pathogen's activities interfere with normal body functions. Inflammation: Process in which, in response to tissue damage or irritation, phagocytes and plasma proteins, including complement proteins, leave the bloodstream, then defend and help repair the tissue. Occurs during both nonspecific and specific (immune) defense responses. Innate immunity: The body's inborn, reset immune responses, which act quickly when tissue is damaged or microbes have invaded. Interleukin: One of a variety of chemical communication signals - secreted by macrophages and helper T cells- that drive immune responses. Antigen-presenting cell: A macrophage or other cell that display antigen-MHC complexes at its surface and so promotes an immune response by lymphocytes. Adaptive immunity: Immune responses that the body develops in response to antigens of specific pathogens, toxins, or abnormal body cells. I want to talk to you guys about the lymphatic system as well!!! The lymphatic system works with the cardiovascular system by picking up fluid that is lost from capillaries and returning it into the bloodstream. The lymphatic system's major job is the body's defense. The lymph vascular system does three things: "drainage, delivery, and disposal." The vessels in the system are drainage channels. Water and solutes that get leaked out of the capillary beds are returned to the bloodstream. The fats that have been absorbed from the small intestine also get delivered to the bloodstream. The cellular debris from body tissues go to the lymph vascular systems disposal locations, the lymph nodes. Lymph capillaries merge into larger lymph vessels. These vessels are like veins, they have smooth muscles n the walls of the valves that prevent backflow. They make up collecting ducts that work to drain in to veins found in the lower neck. This is how the lymph fluid is returned to circulating blood. The movements of skeletal muscles and the rib cage, when you breathe, helps move fluid through these vessels. This is a similar process for veins as well. That's all folks! And of course all this information was taken from my textbook that I cited on my first Blog post.