Chapter

24
The Bodys Defenses

PowerPoint Lectures created by Edward J. Zalisko for

Campbell Essential Biology, Sixth Edition, and
Campbell Essential Biology with Physiology, Fifth Edition
Eric J. Simon, Jean L. Dickey, Kelly A. Hogan, and Jane B. Reece

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An Overview of the Immune System

The immune system is your bodys defense
against infectious disease.
The human immune system is a collection of
organs, tissues, and cells
together perform the vital function of safeguarding
the body from a constant barrage of pathogens,
disease-causing agents like viruses and bacteria.

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Figure 24.1

OVERVIEW OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Innate Immunity
(always deployed)

Adaptive Immunity
(activated by exposure to
specific pathogens)

Second line of defense:

Internal innate defenses

Third line of defense:

Internal adaptive defenses

Skin
Secretions
Mucous membranes

Phagocytic cells

Lymphocytes

Cilia

Mucusproducing
cells

Colorized SEM

First line of defense:

External innate defenses

Invading
microbe

Phagocytic
cell
Natural killer cells
Defensive proteins
Inflammatory response

B cell

Antibodies

The Lymphatic System

(involved in internal innate immunity
and adaptive immunity)

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T cell

Lymph
node

An Overview of the Immune System

The protection provided by your immune system
consists of two parts.
1.

Innate immunity doesnt change much from the

time you are born, and its components
attack
pathogens indiscriminately.

2.

Adaptive immunity continually develops over

your lifetime as it encounters and attacks
specific
pathogens. With its continual
development,
adaptive immunity ensures you will have
better

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An Overview of the Immune System

Innate immunity includes both external and internal
defenses, which are respectively considered the
first and second lines of defense.
External innate defenses are on the frontline,
preventing pathogens from getting deep inside the
body.
Internal innate defenses lie in wait, confronting
pathogens that make it past external defenses.

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An Overview of the Immune System

Adaptive immunity, the third line of defense, is
strictly internal, deploying when innate immunity
defenses fail to ward off a pathogen.
Nearly all animals have innate immunity (the first
and second lines of defense), but only vertebrates
have adaptive immunity (the third line of defense).

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An Overview of the Immune System

Innate and adaptive immunitiesthe immune
systeminteract with and rely on the other
systems in the body, but particularly the lymphatic
system.
The lymphatic system is a network of vessels,
tissues, and organs where pathogens and cells
involved in innate immunity and adaptive immunity
interact with each other to carry out defensive
actions.

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Innate Immunity
Innate immunity protects the body when a
pathogen first attempts to infect the body.
This protection is accomplished with two lines of
defense.
1. External innate defenses keep the pathogen from
entering the body and do so in a variety of ways.
2. Internal innate defenses are ready with immune
cells and defensive proteins should a pathogen
make it past the external innate defenses.

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External Innate Defenses

External innate defenses form the frontline of your
immune system because they prevent infection, as
opposed to your bodys other defenses, which fight
an infection after it occurs.

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External Innate Defenses

Some barriers of external innate defenses block or
filter out pathogens.
Intact skin forms a tough outer layer that most
bacteria and viruses cannot penetrate.
Nostril hairs filter particles from the incoming air.
Ear wax traps pathogens before they can travel too
far down the ear canal.
Organ systems that are open to the external
environment are lined with cells that secrete
mucus, a sticky fluid that traps bacteria, dust, and
other particles.
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(a) Skin forms a protective barrier.

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Colorized SEM

Colorized SEM

Figure 24.2

(b) Cilia on cells in the nasal cavity

sweep mucus (blue) and trapped
bacteria (yellow) out of the body.

Colorized SEM

Figure 24.2-1

(a) Skin forms a protective barrier.

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Colorized SEM

Figure 24.2-2

(b) Cilia on cells in the nasal cavity

sweep mucus (blue) and trapped
bacteria (yellow) out of the body.
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External Innate Defenses

External innate defenses also include chemical
barriers in the form of antimicrobial secretions.
Sweat, saliva, and tears contain enzymes that
disrupt bacterial cell walls.
The skin contains oils and acids that make it
inhospitable to many microorganisms.
The cells of the stomach produce acid that kills
most of the bacteria we swallow.

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Internal Innate Defenses

The internal innate defenses depend on white
blood cells and defensive proteins.
Two types of white blood cells contribute to your
internal innate defenses.
1.

Phagocytic cells (also called phagocytes) engulf

foreign cells or molecules and debris from
dead
cells by phagocytosis, or cellular eating.

2.

Natural killer (NK) cells recognize virusinfected and cancerous body cells.

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Figure 5.18

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Internal Innate Defenses

The inflammatory response often makes infected
areas red, swollen, painful, and warm to the
touch.
Injured cells of damaged tissues release chemicals
that trigger various internal innate defenses.
One such chemical signal, histamine, causes
nearby blood vessels to dilate (widen) and leak fluid
into the wounded tissue, a process called swelling.
The excess fluid heals damaged tissue by diluting
toxins in it, bringing it extra oxygen, and delivering
platelets and clotting proteins to it that promote
scabbing.
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Figure 24.3

Skin surface

Blood
clot

Swelling

Splinter
Bacteria
Chemical
signals
White blood cell

Phagocytic
cells and fluid
move into area

Phagocytic
cells

Blood vessel

1 Tissue injury; release of

chemical signals such
as histamine

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2 Dilation and increased

leakiness of local blood
vessels; migration of
phagocytic cells to
the area

3 Phagocytic cells engulf

bacteria and cell debris;
tissue heals

Figure 24.3-1

Skin surface
Splinter
Bacteria
Chemical
signals
White blood cell

Blood vessel

1 Tissue injury; release of

chemical signals such
as histamine
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Figure 24.3-2

Blood
clot

Swelling

Phagocytic
cells and fluid
move into area

2 Dilation and increased leakiness

of local blood vessels; migration
of phagocytic cells to the area
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Figure 24.3-3

Phagocytic
cells

3 Phagocytic cells engulf

bacteria and cell debris;
tissue heals
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Internal Innate Defenses

The chemical signals also attract phagocytic
cells, which engulf bacteria and the remains of
body cells killed by bacteria or physical injury.
Damaged cells release chemical signals that
increase blood flow to the damaged area,
causing the wound to turn red and warm.
Anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen,
dampen the normal inflammatory response and
help reduce swelling and fever.

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Internal Innate Defenses

All the defenses youve learned about so far are
called innate because innate defenses are already
deployed in the body and at the ready without any
preparation.

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The Lymphatic System

The lymphatic system consists of
a branching network of vessels,
numerous lymph nodes, and
a few other organs, such as the spleen, appendix,
and tonsils.

The lymphatic vessels carry fluid called lymph,

which is similar to the interstitial fluid surrounding
body cells.

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The Lymphatic System

The two main functions of the lymphatic system are
1. to return tissue fluid to the circulatory system and
2. to fight infection.

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Figure 24.4-1

Lymphatic
vessels
entering
veins

Tonsil
Lymph
nodes

Appendix

Lymphatic
vessels

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Thymus
Spleen

(a) The organs

and vessels of
the lymphatic
system

Circulatory Function
As blood travels through the circulatory system,
fluid exits the blood through small gaps between
the cells of the capillaries. This fluid then enters the
interstitial space surrounding tissues.
Nutrients and wastes for all cells are exchanged in
this interstitial fluid.
Most of this fluid reenters the blood and the
circulatory system through capillaries, but some
remains in the tissue.
This excess fluid flows into small lymphatic vessels.

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Circulatory Function
Now called lymph, this fluid drains from the
lymphatic vessels into larger and larger lymphatic
vessels.
Eventually, lymph enters the circulatory system
through two large lymphatic vessels that fuse with
veins near the shoulders. If lymph doesnt drain well
from tissues, the tissue swells.

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Figure 24.4-2

Fluid reLymphatic
Venule entering
Arteriole Capillaries vessels
capillaries

Fluid
exiting
capillaries

Lymph

(b) Lymphatic vessels

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Fluid entering
lymphatic vessel

Immune Function
Because lymphatic vessels penetrate nearly every
tissue, lymph can pick up pathogens from infection
sites just about anywhere in the body.
As this fluid circulates, phagocytic cells inside
lymphatic tissues and organs engulf the invaders.
Lymph nodes are key sites where particular white
blood cells called lymphocytes multiply during
times of infection.

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Adaptive Immunity
Adaptive immunity depends on two types of
lymphocytes that recognize and respond to
specific invading pathogens.
Like all blood cells, lymphocytes originate from stem
cells in the bone marrow.
B cells fully develop and become specialized in the
bone marrow.

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Adaptive Immunity
Immature T cells migrate via the blood to the
thymus, a gland in the chest, where they mature
and become specialized.
Both B cells and T cells eventually make their way
to the lymph nodes and other lymphatic organs and
wait to encounter an invader.

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Adaptive Immunity
Antigens
are molecules that elicit a response from a
lymphocyte,
are usually on the surfaces of viruses or foreign
cells, and
also include toxins secreted from bacteria,
molecules from mold spores, pollen, house dust,
and molecules on cell surfaces of transplanted
tissue.

Any given pathogen will have many different

antigens on its surface.
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Adaptive Immunity
Unlike innate immunity defenses, which are ready
to fight pathogens at any time, the adaptive
immunity defenses, specifically B cells and T cells,
must be primed before they attack foreign
molecules.

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Step 1: Recognizing the Invaders

Protruding from the surface of B cells and T cells
are antigen receptors that bind to an antigen.
Each cell has about 100,000 copies of an antigen
receptor that detects only a single type of antigen.
One cell may recognize an antigen on the mumps
virus, for instance, whereas another detects an
antigen on a tetanus-causing bacterium.

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Animation: Role of B Cells

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Step 1: Recognizing the Invaders

Antigen receptors on B cells specialize in
recognizing intact antigens that are on the surface
of pathogens or circulating freely in body fluids.
The unique shape of the antigen and the
complementary antigen receptor on the B cell results
in a lock-and-key fit that activates the B cell.

In contrast, antigen receptors on T cells only

recognize fragments of antigens, and the fragments
must be displayed, or presented, on the surface of
body cells by special proteins before T cells are
activated.
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Figure 24.5

ADAPTIVE IMMUNITY: RECOGNIZING INVADERS

Antigen recognition by B cells
Pathogen

B cell antigen receptor

binds to a specific antigen.

Antigen recognition by T cells

Self
protein
Pathogen

Antigens
on the
surface

B cell

B cell

Antigen receptors

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Freely
circulating
Body cell
antigens
(such as
T cell antigen receptor
toxins)
binds to the self protein
and a specific antigen
fragment.

Self protein
displaying a
foreign antigen
fragment

T cell
Antigen
receptors

Figure 24.5-1

Antigen recognition by B cells

Pathogen

Antigens
on the
surface

B cell

B cell antigen receptor

binds to a specific antigen.

B cell

Antigen receptors

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Freely
circulating
antigens
(such as
toxins)

Figure 24.5-2

Antigen recognition by T cells

Self protein
displaying a
foreign antigen
fragment

Self
protein
Pathogen
Body cell
T cell antigen receptor
binds to the self protein
and a specific antigen
fragment.

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T cell
Antigen
receptors

Step 1: Recognizing the Invaders

The fragments of antigens that T cells recognize
originate from pathogens that have entered a body
cell.
A T cell bearing a receptor with specificity for this
antigen fragment binds to both the antigen and self
protein.
This three-part interaction among a self protein, an
antigen fragment, and an antigen receptor is
required for a T cell to function.

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Step 1: Recognizing the Invaders

A small population of each kind of lymphocyte lies in
wait in your body, ready to recognize and respond to
a specific antigen.

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Step 2: Cloning the Responders

How does the body marshal enough of the right
kind of lymphocyte to fight a specific invading
pathogen?
The key is a process called clonal selection.
At first, an antigen activates only a tiny number of
lymphocytes with specific antigen receptors.

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Figure 24.6-s1

Antigens on the
surface of a
pathogen
B cells that
recognize
different
antigens

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Antigen receptor
on cell surface

Figure 24.6-s2

Antigens on the
surface of a
pathogen
B cells that
recognize
different
antigens

Antigen receptor
on cell surface

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Figure 24.6-s3

Antigens on the
surface of a
pathogen

B cells that
recognize
different
antigens

Antigen receptor
on cell surface

Clone of effector
B cells

Antibodies
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Figure 24.6-s4

Antigens on the
surface of a
pathogen

B cells that
recognize
different
antigens

Antigen receptor
on cell surface

Clone of effector
B cells

Antibodies
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Clone of memory
B cells

Step 2: Cloning the Responders

1. Once a pathogen enters the body, antigens on its
surface bind with a B cell that has
complementary antigen receptors. Other
lymphocytes without the appropriate binding sites
are not affected.
2. The binding activates the B cellit grows, divides,
and develops further. This produces clones of B
cells specialized for defending against the very
antigen that triggered the response.

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Step 2: Cloning the Responders

3. Some of the newly produced B cells are shortlived cells that have an immediate effect against
the antigen and are therefore called effector
cells.
In this example with clonal selection of B cells, the
effector cells secrete huge quantities of
antibodies, defensive proteins that bind antigens.
During the first response to an antigen, called the
primary immune response, it takes several days for
clonal selection to produce effector cells. The
response peaks about two to three weeks after the
first exposure and starts to decline.
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Step 2: Cloning the Responders

4. Clonal selection produces memory cells that help
fight subsequent exposures to a specific antigen.
Memory cells are long-lived cells found in the lymph
nodes, ready to attack should a known antigen
infect the body again.
If memory cells are exposed to a previously
encountered antigen, they rapidly give rise to new
effector cells and memory cells, a process known as
the secondary immune response.

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Step 2: Cloning the Responders

Thus, clonal selection produces
cells that will fight the first exposure to an antigen
(effector cells) and
cells that will respond to future exposures (memory
cells).

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Step 3: Responding to Invaders

While the antibody response from B cells helps to
eliminate pathogens in the blood and lymph,
cytotoxic T cells destroy pathogens within body
cells and
helper T cells do not directly carry out attacks on
pathogens but aid in stimulating both the B cells and
the cytotoxic T cells in their responses.

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The Helper T Cell Response

Each helper T cell
only recognizes a specific antigen fragment
displayed on self proteins and
is only activated when particular white blood cell
types advertise the antigen.

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Figure 24.7

T cell
receptor

Phagocytic
cell

Activated
helper
T cell

Antigen fragment
displayed on self
protein

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Clonal
selection

Cytotoxic
T cell

Attack on
infected
cells

Activates
other T cells
and B cells

B cell

Secretion of
antibodies

The Helper T Cell Response

Once activated, helper T cells give rise to a
population of
effector helper T cells (which respond to infection by
stimulating the activity of B cells and cytotoxic T
cells) and
memory helper T cells through clonal selection.

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Animation: Helper T Cells

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Video: T Cell Receptors

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The Helper T Cell Response

Because the helper T cell has a central role in
adaptive immunity, the destruction of this cell type
has devastating consequences.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects
helper T cells.
HIV infection causes helper T cell numbers to
decline significantly.
If not treated, HIV infection results in acquired
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Individuals with AIDS lack a completely functional
immune system and die from exposure to other
infectious agents.
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Information Flow: The B Cell Response

The tip of each Y forms a region, an antigenbinding site, that will recognize and bind to a
specific antigen in a lock-and-key structure.
Antibodies are secreted at a furious pace: One
effector B cell can produce up to 2,000 antibodies
per second.

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Animation: Antibodies

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Figure 24.8

Antigen on the
surface of a
pathogen
Antigenbinding site
of antibody

Nucleus

Effector
B cell

Antibodies

Antigens on
the surface of
pathogens

Antigen on the
surface of a
pathogen

Antibody bound
to antigens on the
surface of pathogens
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Antigenbinding
site

Figure 24.8-1

Nucleus

Effector
B cell

Antigens on
the surface of
pathogens

Antibodies

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Antibody bound
to antigens on the
surface of pathogens

Figure 24.8-2

Antigen on
the surface of
a pathogen

Antigenbinding
site of
antibody

Antigen on the
surface of a
pathogen

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Antibody bound to
antigens on the
surface of
pathogens

Antigenbinding
site

Information Flow: The B Cell Response

Antibodies may serve as physical barriers that
prevent pathogens from entering body cells. For
example, antibodies block the viral attachment
proteins necessary for entering and infecting a
body cell.

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Figure 24.9-1

Virus entering a body cell

Virus

Viral
attachment
protein
Body cell
receptor

Antibodies preventing viral attachment

and entry

Virus

Body cell

(a) Antibodies block a virus from entering a body cell.

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Antibody

Body cell

Information Flow: The B Cell Response

Antibodies also aid in pathogen destruction. The
binding of antibodies to antigens on pathogens can
also result in clumps that are easily engulfed and
destroyed by circulating phagocytic cells.

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Figure 24.9-2

Antibody
Bacteria
Antibody binding
causes bacteria
to clump.

A clump of
bacteria is easily
engulfed by a
phagocyte.
Phagocyte

(b) Antibodies enhance phagocytosis.

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The Cytotoxic T Cell Response

The cytotoxic T cell response defends against
pathogens that have entered body cells.
Cytotoxic T cells are the only T cells that actually kill
infected cells.
They identify infected body cells because foreign
antigen fragments are advertised, or bound to a
self protein.

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Figure 24.10

Proteins
Foreign
antigen

Infected
cell

Proteins

Activated
cytotoxic
T cell

1 Cytotoxic T cell
binds to infected
cell, becoming
activated.

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2 Proteins that
trigger cell death
enter the infected
cell.

3 Infected cell dies.

The Cytotoxic T Cell Response

The cytotoxic T cell response does not always work
in a persons favor.
When an organ is transplanted from a donor into a
recipient, the newly transplanted cells contain self
proteins that do not match those on the recipients
cells and the recipients cytotoxic T cells tag the
transplanted cells as foreign and kill them, ultimately
causing organ rejection.

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The Cytotoxic T Cell Response

To minimize organ rejection,
doctors look for a donor (often a blood relative of the
recipient) with self proteins that match the recipients as
closely as possible and
drugs are administered to suppress the immune response.
Organ recipients are often on immunosuppressants for life.

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Animation: Cytotoxic T Cells

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Step 4: Remembering Invaders

Memory cells can last decades in the lymph nodes,
ready to be activated by a second exposure to the
antigen.
If the antigen is encountered again, the secondary
immune response will be
more rapid,
of greater magnitude, and
of longer duration than the primary immune
response.

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Figure 24.11

Antibody concentration

Second exposure
to antigen

Secondary immune
response to
antigen

First exposure
to antigen

Primary immune
response to
antigen

Antibodies
0

14

21

28

35

Time (days)
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42

49

56

Step 4: Remembering Invaders

Immunity is obtained after an infection, but it can
also be achieved artificially by vaccination (also
called immunization), in which the immune system
is confronted with a vaccine composed of an
inactive or otherwise harmless version of a
pathogen.
Vaccination induces the primary immune response
that produces memory cells.
When a person has been successfully vaccinated,
the immune system responds quickly and effectively
to the pathogen.
Such protection may last for life.
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Step 4: Remembering Invaders

In the United States, most children receive a series
of shots starting soon after birth.
The shots include vaccinations against
diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT),
polio,
hepatitis,
chicken pox, and
measles/mumps/rubella (MMR).

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