1.Briefly describe the process of inflammation in an area that has been traumatized.
Inflammation is the mechanism of defense response of the body to tissue damage. Inflammation response has stages: vasodilation and increased permeability of blood vessels, emigration (movement) of phagocytes from the blood into the interstitial fluid, and tissue repair.
Vasodilation of arterioles and an increase in capillary permeability are the two rapid changes that take place inside the blood vessels. Vasodilation allows for more accessibility to the inflamed area and more blood flow to the areas that need oxygen and/or nutrients. When blood arteries are more permeable, substances may pass through, allowing defensive proteins from the blood to reach the wounded area. Within this stage, the escalation of blood flow will eliminate dead cells and microbial toxins.
After an hour, the presence of phagocytes emerges causing an inflammatory process to occur. Through chemotaxis, leukotrienes are particularly effective at luring neutrophils from circulation to the site of infection. More macrophages are enlisted to remove the material left at the site after an early neutrophil influx that was triggered by macrophage cytokines. When local infections are extensive, neutrophils are drawn to the infection sites. As they phagocytose the pathogens and end up dying, their cellular debris accumulates at the infection site and is evident as pus.
2. Choose one type of Immunity (Innate and Humoral) and explain how its mechanism protects our body.
Innate (nonspecifc) immunity is the first barrier of defense since birth combating pathogen's invasion within our skin and mucous membrane that requires initiate adaptive immune responses. This immune response is rapid, occurring minutes or hours after aggression, and is intervened by numerous cells like phagocytes, mast cells, basophils, and eosinophils, as well as the complement system. It includes various defensive barriers to skin and mucous membranes and internal defenses (antimicrobial substances, phagocytes, natural killer cells, inflammation, and fever).
The skin and mucous membrane enable physical and chemical barriers that discourage pathogens and foreign substances from penetrating the body and causing disease. Antimicrobial substances aim to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms. The different substances are interferons (lymphocytes, macrophages, and fibroblasts), complement (inactive proteins), iron-binding proteins (transferrin and lactoferrin), and antimicrobial proteins (short peptides). After penetrating the skin ad mucous membrane or circumventing the antimicrobial substances, natural killers and phagocytes are the lines of defense. Once abnormal or unusual plasma membrane proteins are present, NK cells attack any body cells. Moreover, phagocytosis occurs through the ingestion of microbes or other substances, performed by phagocytes. Inflammation is a defensive retort of the body in tissue damage. It is a process to attempt to dispose of microbes, toxins, or foreign material, particularly on the damaged site. Lastly, fever is an abnormally high body temperature that activates the release of fever-causing cytokines and amplifies the outcomes of the interferons, hinders the growth of some microbes, and boots up body reactions that aid restoration.
References:
LibGuides: BIO 140 - Human Biology I - Textbook: Chapter 24 - Barrier Defenses and the Innate Immune Response. (n.d.). https://guides.hostos.cuny.edu/bio140/6-24
Marshall, J. S. (2018, September 12). An introduction to immunology and immunopathology - Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology. BioMed Central. https://aacijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13223-018-0278-1
Ramanlal, R., & Gupta, V. (2022, January 25). Physiology, Vasodilation. National Library of Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557562/#:~:text=Vasodilation%20is%20the%20widening%20of,lacking%20oxygen%20and%2For%20nutrients.
Tortora, G. J., & Derrickson, B. H. (2020). Principles of Anatomy and Physiology (16th ed.). Wiley.