Answer:
The Immune System
Vertebrates Developed the Immune System to Deal with Pathogenic Microorganisms, Malignant Cells, and Macromolecules
The immune system orchestrates a potent defense that consists of the production of specific antibody molecules and lymphocytes capable of reacting with and inactivating foreign agents, either directly or indirectly through the involvement of molecular and cellular inflammatory processes. The importance of the immune system to our survival in the face of the wide variety of disease-causing agents is tragically demonstrated by the devastating consequences of the immunological impairment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and of congenital immunological deficiencies such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in infants. On the other hand, the enormous power of the immune system as a protection against pathogenic agents carries with it the price that the action of the system may lead to or exacerbate a series of immunological diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and type I diabetes (juvenile onset).
The immune system is composed mainly of lymphocytes and macrophages. The cells of the immune system are found in the blood and lymph, where they are in a recirculating pool, and in the spleen, lymph nodes, and lymphoid tissues associated with the gastrointestinal tract, the brochopulmonary tree, and mucosal surfaces. Lymphocytes and macrophages develop in the thymus and the bone marrow.
Although each cell type in the immune system has a major role to play, it is the lymphocytes that form the unique elements of the system since they display the antigenic specificity that is the hallmark of immunity. Lymphocytes are of two major types, B cells and T cells. B cells are the antecedents of antibody-producing cells, whereas T cells have their major effects in regulating the level of activity of the immune system and in mediating cellular effector mechanisms of immunity, such as destroying virus-infected cells and tumor cells.
The study of the immune system has proven to be of great importance in efforts to understand and to regulate immune responses, both to enhance the system's protective actions against microbes and tumor cells and to control its actions in the development of autoimmune diseases and other disorders with immunological components. In addition, the cells of the immune system are valuable in the study of many aspects of normal biology of mammalian cells since they are easily accessible, have been extensively characterized, and can be easily grown.
Explanation:
sorry po kung mahaba, puwede nman po ninyo iksihan,
