Immune System

We explain what the immune system is and what function it performs. Also, how it is formed and what diseases compromise it.

immune system
Protects the body from foreign and potentially harmful agents.

What is the immune system?

It is known as the immune system, immune system or immune system. defensive mechanism of the human body and other living beings which allows, through coordinated physical, chemical and cellular reactions, to keep the body free of foreign and potentially harmful agents, such as toxins, poisons, or viral, bacterial and other microorganism infections.

These bodies and elements foreign to the organism are called antigensand its presence in the body triggers a highly specialized reaction to prevent it from spreading or remaining in the body. This reaction, called antigen-antibodyconsists mainly of the segregation of cells and defensive substances, such as the different types of white blood cells (antibodies), whose mission is to recognize and expel invaders from the body.

However, the immune system also has mechanical or physical strategies that include inflammation of the affected area (as a method of isolation), increasing body temperature or fever (to make the body less hospitable to invaders), and other specialized responses.

The immune system It is made up of various cells and organs in the body especially the organs and glands that produce white blood cells, but also a whole series of mucous membranes and insulating barriers to prevent the entry of foreign elements. In any case, when it comes to defending the body, many other systems collaborate or are affected by the functioning of the body's defenses.

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Immune system function

The immune system operates based on its two variants: the natural immune system and the acquired or learned one:

  • Natural immune system Also called the innate or nonspecific immune system, it is born with individuals since it consists of defense mechanisms typical of the chemistry of life. It is common to a greater or lesser extent to almost all living beings, even the simplest and most unicellular forms, but they are capable of dealing with invaders by secreting enzymes and defensive proteins.
  • Acquired immune system Already exclusive to vertebrates and the most complex living beings, it has cells totally dedicated to the defense and cleaning of the organism, highly specialized in their task. Its name comes from the fact that it adapts and has a cellular “memory” to recognize the infectious agents it has already fought, so as to better deal with them in the future. The latter is what vaccines do: they give you attenuated microbes so that you can feed your memory without first having to suffer the disease.

How is the immune system made up?

parts of the immune systemparts of the immune system

The immune system is made up of a network of white blood cells that runs through the body and that It is present in blood, bone marrow and other substances of the body as well as the lymphatic system that it uses to move along the nodes and filtering organs of the body, such as the spleen.

These white blood cells can be of two types:

  • Lymphocytes They are responsible for detecting and recognizing foreign bodies, as well as learning their characteristics to add them to the immunological memory, to recognize them in case they re-enter the body.
  • Phagocytes Those in charge of dealing with foreign bodies, that is, doing the dirty work: they phagocytize (engulf inside) the invaders and then expel themselves from the body with them inside, through urine, feces, mucus or other secretions.
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Diseases of the immune system

Despite the extraordinary nature of the immune system, it is not always 100% effective. In many cases, in fact, its functioning is compromised and requires the incorporation of medications. These cases are:

  • Allergies Which are nothing more than a disproportionate reaction of the immune system, which responds to the presence of a harmless substance as if it were an attacker.
  • Autoimmune diseases. In which the immune system becomes the problem, as it attacks healthy cells or tissues and the body itself, mistakenly identifying them as infected or foreign.
  • Immunosuppressive diseases Like AIDS, whose infectious agents precisely attack the white blood cells in charge of defense, through various strategies that do not allow their ordinary capture and expulsion. As a result of these diseases, people become immunosuppressed (that is, without defenses) and other opportunistic diseases can take advantage of this condition.