General Biology 2 – 3rd Quarter

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Different Gas Exchange Systems in animals:

Gas Exchange, Transport, and Circulation a. Gases diffuse directly into single-celled
in Plants and Animals organisms.

Gas Exchange across Respiratory Surfaces b. Most amphibians and many other animals
respire across their skin. Most amphibians also
• One of the major physiological challenges facing
all multicellular animals is obtaining sufficient exchange gases via lungs.
c. Echinoderms have protruding papulae, which
oxygen (O2) and disposing of excess carbon
provide an increased respiratory surface area.
dioxide (CO2).
4 Major Types of Gas Exchange Systems d. Insects respire through an extensive tracheal
system.
1. Body surface (Invertebrates, adult amphibians)
2. Gills (Invertebrates, fish, larval amphibians) e. The gills of fishes provide a very large
respiratory surface area and countercurrent
3. Tracheae (Invertebrates) exchange
4. Lungs (almost ALL amphibians, reptiles, birds, and f. The alveoli in mammalian lungs provide a large
mammals) respiratory surface area but do not permit
Gas Exchange involves diffusion across membranes: countercurrent exchange. Inhaled fresh air
contains some CO2, but levels are higher in the
➢ Because plasma membranes must be surrounded by lungs, so more CO2 is exhaled than inhaled;
water to be stable, the external environment in gas similarly, O2 levels are higher in fresh air,
exchange is always aqueous. leading to an influx of O2.
➢ In this case, oxygen from air dissolves in a thin layer
of fluid that covers the respiratory surfaces, such as
in the lungs.
• The diffusion process is passive, driven only by
the difference in O2 and CO2 concentrations on
the two sides of the membranes and their relative
solubilities in the plasma membrane.
• for a dissolved gas, rate of diffusion (R) is
directly proportional to the pressure difference
(∆p), and the area (A) over which the diffusion
occurs. R is inversely proportional to the
distance (d) across which the diffusion must
occur. Diffusion constant (D) accounts for the
size of molecule, membrane permeability, and Gills, Cutaneous Respiration, and Tracheal Systems
temperature.
• Gills are specialized extensions of tissue that
Fick’s Law of Diffusion project into water.
• They can be simple, as in the papulae of
echinoderms, or complex, as in the highly
convoluted gills of fish.
External gills are found in fish and amphibian larvae
• External gills are not enclosed within a body
structures.
• Disadvantage: they must constantly be moved to
ensure contact with fresh water having high
oxygen content.
Some amphibians have external gills Countercurrent flow
➢ External gills are used by aquatic amphibians,
both larvae and some species that live their entire ➢ blood flows opposite to the direction of water
lives in water such as this axolotl (Ambystoma movement in the lamella.
mexicanum), to extract oxygen from the water. • Maintains a positive oxygen gradient along
the entire pathway for diffusion
Branchial chambers protect gills of some
invertebrates • Ensures that the oxygen concentration
➢ Another disadvantage of external gills: thin gradients remain between blood and water
epithelium for gas exchange can be easily throughout the length of the gill lamellae
damaged.
➢ Branchial chambers provide a means of pumping
water past stationary gills.
• The internal mantle cavity of mollusks
opens to the outside and contains the gills.
• In crustaceans, the branchial chamber lies
between the bulk of the body and the hard
exoskeleton of the animal.

Gills of bony fishes are covered by the operculum

• The gills of bony fishes are located between the
oral cavity (buccal cavity), and the opercular
cavities which serves as pumps to alternately
move water into the mouth, through the gills,
and out of the fish.

Cutaneous respiration requires constant moisture:

Cutaneous respiration – the process of exchanging
oxygen and carbon dioxide across the skin
• In amphibians, cutaneous supplements and
sometimes replaces the action of lungs (such as
in plethodontid salamanders, “lungless
salamanders”)
• How most bony fishes respire.
• The gills are suspended between the buccal • Some aquatic reptiles have the ability to respire
(mouth) cavity and the opercular cavity. cutaneously such as soft-shelled turtles. They
Respiration occurs in two stages. The oral valve can remain submerged and inactive in river
in the mouth is opened and the jaw is depressed, sediment for hours without having to ventilate
drawing water into the buccal cavity while the their lungs.
opercular cavity is closed. The oral valve is
Tracheal systems are found in arthropods
closed and the operculum is opened, drawing
water through the gills to the outside. • Tracheae – small, branched cuticle-lined air
ducts (found in most terrestrial arthropods).
➢ There are between three (3) and seven (7) gill • The arthropods have no single respiratory
arches on each side of fish’s head. organ.
• The trachea branched into very small
➢ Each gill arch is composed of two rows of gill
tracheoles which are series of tubes that
filaments, and each gill filament contains thin
transmit gases throughout the body.
membranous plates or lamellae.
Spiracle – specialized opening in the exoskeleton where
➢ Water flows past the lamellae in one direction only.
air passes.
• In most terrestrial arthropods, spiracle can be
opened and closed by valves.
 • Advantage: prevent water loss by closing the Amphibians and reptiles breath in different ways
spiracles for adaptation that facilitated the
invasion of land by arthropods • The lungs of amphibians are formed as saclike
outpouchings of the gut.
Lungs
• Despite the high efficiency of gills as respiratory
organs in aquatic environments, gills were
replaced in terrestrial animals for two principal
reasons:
Air is less supportive than water

• The fine membranous lamellae of gills lack

structural strength and rely on water for their
support.

• When a fish is out of water, it will soon Mammalian lungs have greatly increased surface
suffocates because its gills collapse into a mass
• Pathway of air:
of tissue.
• Mouth and Nose → pharynx → larynx
• Unlike gills, tracheae and lungs can remain open (voice box) → glottis → trachea
because the body itself provides the necessary (windpipe) → right and left bronchi →
structural support bronchioles → alveoli
• The alveoli are surrounded by an extensive
Water evaporates
capillary network where all gas exchange
between the air and blood takes place
• Terrestrial organisms constantly lose water to the
• In humans, each lung has about 300 million
atmosphere.
alveoli, and the total surface area available for
diffusion can be as much as 80 m2.
• Gills would provide an enormous surface area for
water loss, potentially causing dehydration.
• The lungs minimizes evaporation by moving air
through a branched tubular passage.
• The tracheal system of arthropods also uses
internal tubes to minimize evaporation

Breathing of air takes advantage of partial pressures

of gases

• Partial pressure – the pressure contributed by

gas to the total atmospheric pressure according
to its fraction of the total molecules present.

Dry air contains:

• Nitrogen – 78.09%
• Oxygen – 20.95%
• Argon – 0.93% The Human Respiratory System and the structure of
• Carbon dioxide – 0.03% the mammalian lung
• 760 mm Hg (1.0 atm) is the barometric pressure
of the air at sea level ➢ The lungs of mammals have an enormous surface
area because of the millions of alveoli that cluster
at the ends of the bronchioles. This provides for
efficient gas exchange with the blood.
 • Each hemoglobin molecule can carry
four oxygen molecules to form a
complex molecule called
oxyhemoglobin.
Hb + 4O2 → Hb(O2)4
Hemoglobin Oxyhemoglobin
• In hemocyanin, the oxygen-binding atom is
copper and it is a free protein circulating via
hemolymph of arthropods and some mollusks.

Carbon dioxide is primarily transported as

The respiratory system of birds is a highly efficient bicarbonate ion
flow-through system
• The avian respiratory system has the most ➢ The carbon dioxide is transported by blood to the
efficient respiration of all terrestrial vertebrates. lungs in three different ways

• The bird lung channels air through tiny • Conversion to hydrogen carbonate ions in red
vessels called parabronchi, where gas blood cells (72%)
exchange occurs. • Binding to hemoglobin (20%)
• Dissolving in the plasma (8%)
• Air flows through the parabronchi in one
direction only.
• The unidirectional flow of air is achieved
through the action of anterior and posterior air
sacs unique to birds.

The transport of Carbon dioxide by the blood.

➢ Passage into bloodstream. CO2 is transported in

three ways: dissolved in plasma, bound to the
protein portion of hemoglobin, and as bicarbonate
(HCO3–), which forms in red blood cells. The
reaction of CO2 with H2O to form H2CO3 (carbonic
acid) is catalyzed by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase
in red blood cells.
How a bird breathes.
In the lungs where the oxygen partial pressure is high
Birds have a system of air sacs, divided into an anterior
and the carbon dioxide partial pressure is low, oxygen
group and posterior group, that extend between the
diffuses into the alveolar blood capillaries from the
internal organs and into the bones.
alveoli while carbon dioxide diffuses out from the
The respiratory pigments bind oxygen for transport alveolar blood capillaries into the alveoli and is
expelled in exhaled air.
• Hemoglobin is a protein composed of four
polypeptide chains and four organic compounds
called the heme group. (Used most of the
vertebrates)
• At the center of each heme group is an atom of
iron, where oxygen bind.
The transport of Carbon dioxide by the blood. The Components of Blood

➢ Removal from bloodstream. When the blood • Blood is a connective tissue composed of a fluid
passes through the pulmonary capillaries, these matrix, called plasma, in which several different
reactions are reversed so that CO2 gas is formed, types of cells circulate.
which is exhaled. • Functions:
• Transportation - All of the substances
Gas exchange in Plants essential for cellular metabolism are
transported by blood.
a. Stomata is a pore or aperture that penetrates the • Regulation - The cardiovascular system
epidermis of leaves, young branches, and stems of transports regulatory hormones from the
green plants. endocrine glands and also participates in
temperature regulation.
• Plays an important role in the exchange of
respiratory gases in plants Protection - The circulatory system responds to injury
and defends against foreign microbes or toxins
b. Guard cells two specialized epidermal cells forming introduced into the body.
stomata.
Composition of Blood
• Bean-shaped cells that contains
chlorophyll and are able to carry out
photosynthesis
• Play an important role in the opening and
closing of the stoma.

Stomata
Blood Plasma is a fluid matrix
➢ A stoma is the space between two guard cells that
regulates the size of the opening. Stomata are NUTRIENTS, WASTES, and HORMONES
evenly distributed within the epidermis of
monocots and eudicots, but the patterning is quite • Dissolved nutrients from digestive breakdowns
different (glucose, amino acids, vitamins).
• Waste products such as nitrogen compounds and
c. Lenticels are spongy areas in the cork surfaces of carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Endocrine hormones released from glands.
stem, roots, and other plant parts that allows
interchange of gases between internal tissues and the
atmosphere through the periderm. IONS
d. Pneumatopores are spongy outgrowths from
underwater roots which commonly extend several • Blood plasma is a dilute salt solution.
centimeters above water, facilitating oxygen uptake • Predominant plasma ions: Na+, Cl-, and
in the roots beneath. bicarbonate ions (HCO3-).
• Trace amounts of other ions: Ca2+, Mg2+, Cu2+,
K+, and Zn2+.
PROTEINS • Granular leukocytes include neutrophils,
eosinophils, and basophils, which are named
• Albumin (54%) of the plasma – produced in the according to the staining properties of granules
liver. in their cytoplasm.
• α and β Globulins (38%) – carriers of lipids and
steroid hormones. • Nongranular leukocytes include monocytes and
• Fibrinogen (7%) – required for blood clotting. lymphocytes.

Blood cells and platelets circulate in the plasma • In humans, neutrophils are the most numerous of
the leukocytes, followed in order by
Erythrocytes lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, and
basophils.
• Also known as Red Blood Cells (RBC).
• Hematocrit - The fraction of the total blood Thrombocytes
volume that is occupied by erythrocytes
• resembles a doughnut-shaped disk with a central • Also known as platelets.
depression • These are cell fragments that pinch off from
• Mature mammalian erythrocytes lack nuclei. larger cells in the bone marrow
(megakaryocytes).

Blood Clotting is an example of an Enzyme cascade

• Erythrocytes of vertebrates contain hemoglobin, a
pigment that binds and transports oxygen. • Platelets can accumulate at the injured site and
• But in invertebrates, the oxygen-binding pigment form a plug by sticking to one another and to the
(not always hemoglobin) is also present in the surrounding tissues.
plasma.

Leukocytes

• Also known as White Blood Cells (WBC).

• There are only 1 or 2 leukocytes for every 1000
erythrocytes.
• Larger than erythrocytes and have nuclei. Blood Clotting
• Can migrate out of capillaries through the • Fibrin is formed from a soluble protein, fibrinogen,
intercellular spaces into the surrounding in the plasma. This reaction is catalyzed by the
interstitial (tissue) fluid. enzyme thrombin, which is converted from an
inactive enzyme called prothrombin in the
presence of platelets, plasma factors, and
molecules released from the damaged tissue. The
activation of thrombin is the last step in a cascade
of enzymatic reactions that produces a blood clot
when a blood vessel is damaged.
 Invertebrate Circulatory System Closed Circulatory System move fluids in loops
• The nature of the circulatory system in • In a closed circulatory system, the circulating
multicellular invertebrates is directly related to fluid, blood, is always enclosed within blood
the size, complexity, and lifestyle of the vessels that transport it away from and back to
organism. the heart. Some invertebrates, (cephalopod
mollusks and annelids) and all vertebrates.
• Most of these invertebrates are quite small or are
long and thin, and therefore adequate circulation
is accomplished by movements of the body
against the body fluids, which are indirect contact
with the internal tissues and organs.

• In the closed circulation of the earthworm, blood

Circulatory Systems of the animal kingdom pumped from the hearts remains within a system
of vessels that returns it to the hearts. All
Sponges (left panel ) do not have a separate circulatory vertebrates also have closed circulatory systems.
system. They circulate water using many incurrent pores
and one excurrent pore. The gastrovascular cavity of a
hydra (middle panel ) serves as both a digestive and a
Vertebrate Circulatory System: Fishes
circulatory system, delivering nutrients directly to the
tissue cells by diffusion from the digestive cavity. The • The development of gills by fishes required a
nematode (right panel ) is thin enough that the digestive more efficient pump, and in fishes we see the
tract can also be used as a circulatory system. Larger evolution of a true chamber-pump heart.
animals require a separate circulatory system to carry
nutrients to and wastes away from tissues. • The first two structures—the sinus venosus and
atrium—form the first chamber; the second
Open Circulatory System move fluids in a one-way two, the ventricle and conus arteriosus, form the
path second chamber.
• In an open circulatory system, such as that • The sinus venosus is the first to contract,
found in most mollusks and in arthropods, there followed by the atrium, the ventricle, and finally
is no distinction between the circulating fluid the conus arteriosus.
and the extracellular fluid of the body tissues.
• This fluid is thus called hemolymph.

The heart and circulation of a fish.

• Diagram of a fish heart, showing the structures
in series with each other (sinus venosus; atrium;
ventricles; conus arteriosus) that form two
pumping chambers. Blood is pumped by the
• In the open circulation of an insect, hemolymph ventricle through the gills and then to the body.
is pumped from a tubular heart into cavities in Blood rich in oxygen (oxygenated) is shown in
the insect’s body; the hemolymph then returns to red; blood low in oxygen (deoxygenated) is
the blood vessels so that it can be recirculated. shown in blue.
Vertebrate Circulatory System: Amphibian
Circulation
• The amphibian heart has two structural features
that significantly reduce this mixing
• The atrium is divided into two chambers:
• The right atrium receives deoxygenated
blood from the systemic circulation, and
the left atrium receives oxygenated blood
from the lungs.
• Because an amphibian heart has a single The heart and circulation of mammals and birds.
ventricle, the separation of the pulmonary and
a. The path of blood through the four-chambered heart.
systemic circulations is incomplete.
• Amphibians have a pulmocutaneous circuit that b. The right side of the heart receives deoxygenated
sends blood to both the lungs and the skin. blood and pumps it to the lungs; the left side of the heart
receives oxygenated blood and pumps it to the body. In
this way, the pulmonary and systemic circulations are
kept completely separate.

The heart and circulation of an amphibian.

a. The frog has a three-chambered heart with two atria
but only one ventricle, which pumps blood both to the
lungs and to the body.
The Human Heart
b. Despite the potential for mixing, the oxygenated and
deoxygenated bloods (red and blue lines, respectively) • Heart is a muscular organ, positioned behind the
mix little as they are pumped to the body and lungs. rib cage and between the lungs.
Oxygenation of blood also occurs by gas exchange • It is a pump that pushes blood
through the skin. throughout the circulatory system.
• Two pumps of the heart:
Vertebrate Circulatory System: Mammals and Birds • The right side of the heart → Lungs (to
• Mammals, birds, and crocodilians have a four- make blood oxygenated)
chambered heart with two separate atria and two • The left side of the heart → throughout
separate ventricles. the body
• The heart in these vertebrates is a two-cycle • Septum – divides the heart in half and prevents
pump. blood from flowing between the two atria and two
• More efficient circulation is necessary to support ventricles
the high metabolic rate required for maintenance
of internal body temperature about a set point.
Flow of Blood in the Human Heart

Regulation of heat exchange

• The narrower the vessel, the greater the
frictional resistance to flow. Vasoconstriction
greatly increases resistance and decreases flow.
Vasodilation decreases resistance and
increasing blood flow to an organ.

Four Tissue Layers of Blood Vessels:

• Endothelium (innermost layer, Elastic fiber,
Smooth muscle. Connective tissue
The Cardiac Cycle
• Contraction and relaxation of the atria and Venules and veins have the same tissue layers as arteries.
ventricles moves blood through the heart.
• They have thinner layer of smooth muscle because the
pressure in the veins is 1/10 that in the arteries,
• Venous pumps is a mechanism where skeletal
muscles that surrounds the veins contract to
move blood by squeezing the veins.
• Capillaries form a vast network for exchange
of materials.
• Capillaries are about 1 mm long and 8 μm in
diameter.
• Normal red blood cells are flexible enough to
Characteristics of Blood Vessels squeeze through capillaries without difficulty.

• Arteries and arterioles have evolved to

withstand pressure.
• Larger arteries contain more elastic fibers while
smaller arteries have relatively thick smooth muscle.

The structure of blood vessels One-way of blood through veins.

• Venous valves ensure that blood moves through
• Arteries (a) and veins (b) have the same tissue
layers, but the smooth muscle layer in arteries is the veins in inly one direction back to the heart.
much thicker and there are two elastic layers.
• Capillaries are composed of only a single layer of
endothelial cells.
Plant Transport System Water potential is higher in soil and roots than at the
shoot tip.
• There are two types of vascular tissues in
plants: Xylem and Phloem • Water evaporating from the leaves through the
stomata causes additional water to move upward
• Three theories that explain the transport in the xylem and also to enter the plant through
mechanism: the roots. Water potential drops substantially in
• Root pressure – suggests that cells in roots actively the leaves due to transpiration.
pump water or ions into the xylem tissue causing a Xylem transport
change in the concentration gradient so water moves
to xylem via osmosis. • Root pressure (which occurs at night) is caused by
the continued accumulation of ions in the roots at
• Capillary action – ability of a substance to draw or times when transpiration from the leaves is very
stick another substance to it. low or absent.
• Cohesion tension – relies in the attraction between • Guttation forces the water up to the
water molecules where water is pulled up from leaves when root pressure is high where
below (transpiration pull/cohesion tension). it may be lost in a liquid form that
occurs in hydathodes.
• A water potential gradient from roots to shoots
enables transport.
• Transpiration of water in a leaf creates
negative pressure or tension in the xylem
(pulls water up the stem from the roots)

• Xylem vessels and tracheid accommodate bulk

flow.
• The tensile strength of a column of water
varies inversely with the diameter of the
column (smaller the diameter, the greater the
tensile strength)
• Tracheid and vessels are essential for the bulk
transport of minerals.

• Minerals are actively transported to roots.

• Phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, and iron
may be abundant during certain seasons.
• Not all minerals can reenter the xylem
conduit once they leave but some can be
transported in the xylem.
 from its stylet and the cut stylet is left in the plant, the
phloem fluid oozes out of it and can then be collected
and analyzed.

Pressure-flow hypothesis – widely accepted model of

carbohydrate transport.

• Dissolve carbohydrates flow from source to

sink.
• Sources and sinks can change across the life of
a plant. (Photosynthetic tissues can be a source;
food-storage tissues can be both source or sink;
growing tips of roots and stems can developed
sinks)
Phloem transport

• Translocation – the process of distributing most

of the carbohydrates through the phloem to the
rest of the plant.

• Organic molecules are transported up and down

the plant (two-way flow)
• Sucrose – primary solute in the phloem
(aphids can extract plant sap for food in
the phloem)
• Phloem also transport plant hormones
and mRNA (providing mechanism for
long-distance communication among
cells)
• Others: sugars, amino acids, organic
acids, proteins, and ions.

Feeding on Phloem

• Aphids, including this individual shown on the edge

of a leaf, feed on the food-rich contents of the phloem,
Diagram of Mass flow
which they extract through (b) their piercing
mouthparts, called stylets. When an aphid is separated
• In this diagram, red dots represent sucrose molecules The skin is a barrier to infection
and blue dots symbolize water molecules. After
moving from the mesophyll cells of a leaf or another • Skin is the largest organ of the body, accounting
part of the plant into the conducting cells of the for 15% of an adult human’s total weight.
phloem, the sucrose molecules are transported to • Oil and sweat glands give the skin’s
other parts of the plant by mass flow and unloaded surface a pH of 3 to 5, which is acidic
where they are required.
enough to inhibit the growth of many
pathogenic microorganisms.
• Sweat also contains the enzyme
The Defense System lysozyme, which digests bacterial cell
walls.
• Epithelial cells also produce a variety
Immune Response of small antimicrobial peptides.
• the collective and coordinated process • The skin also contains normal flora,
performed by the immune system upon the nonpathogenic bacteria or fungi that are well
introduction of a foreign substance. adapted to the skin conditions in different
regions of the body.
Innate Immune System
• Pathogenic bacteria that might attempt
to colonize the skin generally are
• Recognizes specific molecules that are unable to compete with the normal
conserved in particular pathogens. It is also a flora.
rapid response that brings cells to the site of • Cells are shed continuously and are
infection. replaced by new cells produced in the
innermost layer of the epidermis. (if
Physical barriers abraded, injured, or worn by friction
and stress)
• Skin, hair, cilia
• Mucus membrane Mucosal epithelial surfaces also prevent entry of
• Mucus and Chemical Secretions pathogens
• Digestive enzymes
• Three other potential routes that is open to
Internal defenses external environment:
• Digestive tract
• Inflammatory response • Microbes are killed by saliva
• Complement proteins (which contains lysozymes), acidic
• Phagocytic cells environment of the stomach, and
• Natural Killer (NK) cells by the digestive enzymes in the
intestines.
Adaptive Immune System • The gastrointestinal tract contains
nonpathogenic normal flora which
• Characterized by a genetic rearrangements inhibits the growth of pathogenic
that generate a diverse set of molecules that competitors.
can recognize virtually any invading pathogens. • Respiratory tract
• Contains cilia that continually
• Antibodies and the humoral immune sweep the mucus toward the
response glottis.
• Cell-mediated immune response • Nicotine paralyzes the cilia.
• Memory response
 Sebaceous
glands
(sebum)
Stomach Gastric Digestive enzymes
juices (pepsin, renin),
hydrochloric acid

Phagocytic Cells are associated with Innate

Immunity

• Three Basic kinds of leukocytes:

• Macrophages
Physical and Chemical barriers of the human • “big eaters”
body as examples of innate immune system • Large, irregularly shaped cells
that kill microorganisms by
• Three other potential routes that is open to ingesting them through
external environment: phagocytosis.
• Urogenital tract • Aside from bacteria, it also engulf
• Vaginal secretions are sticky and viruses, cellular debris, and dust
acidic and promote the growth of particles in the lungs.
normal flora. • In response to an infection:
• Acidic urine continually washes • Monocytes (found in the blood)
potential pathogens from the urinary → squeezed out through
tract. endothelium → mature into
• Vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, and sneezing are active, phagocytic
also defense mechanisms used by the body. macrophages
• Infection – successful invasion of a pathogenic
organism inside the body.

Table 1. Secretions at Epithelial Surfaces

Site Sources Secretions

Eyes Lacrimal Lysozyme, IgA,

Glans (tears) IgG
A macrophage in action.
Ears Sebaceous Waxy Secretions
glands (cerumen) ➢ In this scanning electron micrograph, a
macrophage is “fishing” with long, sticky
Mouth Salivary Digestive Enzymes, cytoplasmic extensions. Bacterial cells that
Glands Lysozymes, IgA, come in contact with the extensions are drawn
IgG, lactoferin toward the macrophage and engulfed.
Skin Sweat glands Lysozyme, high
(sweat) NaCl, short-chain
fatty acid
Three Basic kinds of leukocytes:

• Neutrophils
• Most abundant circulating leukocytes
(50-70% of the peripheral blood
leukocytes) First type of cell to appear
at the site of tissue damage or infection.
• Similar defense mechanism with
macrophage except that they produce
an even greater range of reactive
oxygen radicals (ROS).
• Produce defensin peptides.

• Natural Killer Cells

• Do not attack invading microbes,
instead they kill cells of the body that
have been infected with viruses. 1. Neutrophils will arrive first that release
• Defense mechanism: Apoptosis of chemicals to kill the microbe in the area.
the target cell. 2. Pus is produced (mixture of dead
• NK cells also attacks tumor cells, neutrophils, tissue cells, and dead
often before the tumor cells have had pathogens)
a chance to divide sufficiently to be 3. Macrophages follow to engulf the pathogens
detectable as a tumor. and the remains of dead cells.
4. Macrophage will produce IL-1 (interleukin-
1) which will be transported to the brain.
5. The neurons in the hypothalamus raises the
overall body’s normal temperature above
37OC in the form of a fever.

Complement can form a membrane attack

complex

• Complement System – a group of

approximately 30 different proteins that
The inflammatory response is a nonspecific circulate freely in the blood plasma.
response to infection or tissue injury: • They occur in an inactive form. When
activated, complement proteins aggregate
• Certain infected or injured cells release to form a membrane attack complex
chemical alarm signals. (MAC).
• Histamine and prostaglandins causes • The complement system inserts
vasodilation of local blood vessels itself into the pathogen’s plasma
• Increases the flow of blood causes the membrane to form a pore.
area to become red and warm. • Extracellular fluid enters the
• Increases permeability of capillaries pathogen through this pore, causing
in the area which causes edema. the pathogen to swell and burst.
• Swelling puts pressure on nerve • Other complement proteins such as C3b,
endings in the region which leads to may coat the surface of invading
pain and potential loss of function. pathogens.
• This leads to phagocytic neutrophils
and macrophages to bind with these
pathogens to phagocytized and
destruct.
 • Some complement proteins stimulates epitopes on an antigen and direct immune
the release of histamine, mast cells, and response against the antigen in solution or
basophils; other attract more on the cell surface.
phagocytes especially neutrophils.
• The adaptive immune system is characterized by
Antigens stimulate specific immune response the following:
1. Specificity of recognition of antigen
• An antigen is a molecule that provokes a 2. Wide diversity of antigens can be
specific immune response. specifically recognized
• The most effective antigens are 3. Memory, whereby the immune system
large, complex molecules such as responds more quickly and more
proteins. intensely to an antigen it encountered
• The greater the foreignness, the previously than to one it is meeting for
greater the immune response they the first time
elicit. 4. Ability to distinguish self-antigens from
• Antigen may be components of a nonself.
microorganisms or a virus, but they may also
be proteins or glycoproteins on the surface of Lymphocytes and antigen recognition
transfused RBCs or on transplanted tissue.
• All of the receptor proteins on any one
• A large antigen is likely to have many lymphocyte have the same epitope
different parts, known as antigenic specificity, but it is rare for different
determinants or epitopes which can stimulate lymphocytes to have identical specificities.
a distinct immune response. • Naive lymphocytes – a lymphocyte that has
never before encountered antigen.
• Clonal Selection – a process when a
lymphocyte binds to a foreign antigen, the
lymphocyte is activated, causing it to divide
producing a clone of cells with identical
antigen specificity.

B Cells

• Also called “B lymphocytes”

• Secretes proteins called antibodies or
Many different epitopes are exhibited by any one immunoglobulins (Ig)
antigen • Antigen recognition occurs when an antigen
binds to immunoglobulins on the B cell’s
a. A single protein, with associated carbohydrate, membrane.
may have many different antigenic determinants • B-cell-mediated response producing secreted
called epitopes, each of which can stimulate a antibodies is called humoral immunity.
distinct immune response. b. A pathogen such as a
bacterium has many proteins on its surface, and T Cells
there are likely to be multiple copies of each. Note
that the protein and bacterium are not drawn to scale • Also called “T lymphocytes”
with respect to each other. • Regulate the immune responses of other
cells or directly attack the cells that carry the
Lymphocytes carry out the adaptive immune specific antigens
responses • These cells participate in the adaptive
immunity called cell-mediated immunity.
• Lymphocytes have receptor proteins on
their surfaces that recognize specific
The Immune System is supported by two classes • There are two classes of MHC proteins:
of organs • MHC Class I proteins
• Present on every nucleated
• The organs of the immune system consists of cell of the body.
the • MHC Class II proteins
• Primary lymphoid organs – bone marrow • Found only on antigen
and the thymus presenting cells: dendritic
• B and T lymphocytes mature and cells, B cells, macrophages.
acquire their specific receptors.
• Secondary lymphoid organs – lymph nodes, Cytotoxic T cells eliminate virally infected cells
spleen, and mucosa-associated lymphoid and tumor cells
organs (MALT)
• This is where antigen is collected • Activated cytotoxic T cells recognize
and through which the mature “altered-self” cells (those that are virally
naive lymphocytes circulate in infected or tumor cells.
order to meet and be stimulated by • MHC Class I proteins are recognized.
antigen. • An endogenous antigen may be a self-
protein, or it may be a viral protein produced
within a virally infected cell or an unusual
protein produced by a cancerous cells.
• T cell activation occurs in secondary
lymphoid organs.
• Dendritic cells in particular often
present antigens that activate TC
cells.
• However, not all viruses can infect
dendritic cells.

Cell Mediated Immunity

• T cells may be characterized as either:

• Cytotoxic T cells (TC) which have CD8
protein on their cell surface making
them CD8+ cells
• Helper T cells (TH) which have CD4
protein on their cell surface making
them CD4+ cells. Helper T cells secrete proteins that direct immune
• To be activated, both of these T cell types must responses
recognize peptide fragments bound to MHC
proteins. • Activated helper T cells secrete low-
• MHC (major histocompatibility complex) molecular-weight proteins known as cytokines
proteins on the tissue serve as self markers that • Cytokines bind to specific receptors on
enable to distinguish its own cells from foreign the membranes of many other cells
cells (self versus nonself recognition) which initiates signaling cascades in
 these cells that promote activation or Three mechanisms by which antibodies inhibit
differentiation. infection:
• Cytokines are quite potent and secreted at low
concentrations so that they can bind only to • Neutralization – antibodies prevent a virus
nearby cells. or toxic protein from binding their target.
• IL-1 is an exception in that it travels
to the hypothalamus to induce the • Opsonization – a pathogen tagged by
fever response. antibodies is consumed by a macrophage or
• Recognized MHC Class II proteins. neutrophil.

• Complement activation – antibodies

attached to the surface of a pathogen cell
activate the complement system.

Humoral Immunity and Antibody production

• Helper T cells secrete cytokines promoting

either cell-mediated or humoral immune
response. Five Classes of Immunoglobulins
• B lymphocytes or B cells are specialized to
recognize particular foreign antigens. • IgM – first antibody secreted during the
• B-cells will divide rapidly and its progeny primary immune response
will differentiate into two groups of cells: • Promotes agglutination and
• Plasma cells – produce a highly precipitation reactions
potent protein called antibodies. • Activates complement
• Memory B cells – remains in the
body waiting for the encounter of
same antigen.

• IgD – present only on surfaces of Naive B

cells
• Serves as antigen receptor
• Activate basophils and mast cells to
produce antimicrobial factors.
• IgG – major antibody secreted during the
secondary response.
• The only antibody capable of
crossing the placenta to give passive
immunity to fetus.
• Activates complement.

• IgA – Most abundant form of antibody in

body secretions
• Found in mucosal areas, such as the
gut, respiratory tract, and urogenital
tract, and prevents colonization by
pathogens.
• Also found in saliva, tears, and
breast milk.

• IgE – present in low concentration in the

plasma
• Binds to allergens and triggers
histamine release from mast cells and
basophils, and is involved in allergic
reactions.
• Also protects against parasitic
worms.

By: Ryo Shin Mendoza – Vice President of STEM

12 YI-30