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- How the Immune System works?
- How the Immune System Defends the Body?
- What is the Immune Response?
Inside your body there is an amazing protection mechanism called the immune system. It is designed to defend you against millions of bacteria, microbes, viruses, toxins and parasites that would love to invade your body. To understand the power of the immune system, all that you have to do is look at what happens to anything once it dies. That sounds gross, but it does show you something very important about your immune system.
When something dies, its immune system (along with everything else) shuts down. In a matter of hours, the body is invaded by all sorts of bacteria, microbes, parasites... None of these things are able to get in when your immune system is working, but the moment your immune system stops the door is wide open. Once you die it only takes a few weeks for these organisms to completely dismantle your body and carry it away, until all that's left is a skeleton. Obviously your immune system is doing something amazing to keep all of that dismantling from happening when you are alive.
The immune system is complex, intricate and interesting. And there are at least two good reasons for you to know more about it. First, it is just plain fascinating to understand where things like fevers, hives, inflammation, etc., come from when they happen inside your own body. You also hear a lot about the immune system in the news as new parts of it are understood and new drugs come on the market -- knowing about the immune system makes these news stories understandable. In this article, we will take a look at how your immune system works so that you can understand what it is doing for you each day, as well as what it is not.
The body is protected by a diverse army of cells and molecules that work in concert. The ultimate target of all immune responses is an antigen, which is usually a foreign molecule from a bacterium or other invader. Specialized antigen-presenting cells, such as macrophages, roam the body, ingesting the antigens they find and fragmenting them into antigenic peptides. This activates circulating T-cells, that recognize this specific antigen. For a cell-mediated immune response to occur, antigen-specific T-cells must be stimulated. Interleukin-1, a product of activated macrophages, enhances this T-cell response. T-cell stimulation results in the clonal proliferation of helper T-cells, cytotoxic (killer) T-cells, suppressor T-cells, and memory T-cells. When activated, T-cells produce and secrete a wide variety of immune products, including interleukin-2, gamma interferon, and B-cell growth factors. These products, known as cytokines, recruit and activate nonspecific destructor cells such as natural killer (NK) cells, polymorphonuclear phagocytes (PMNs), and macrophages, cytokines also stimulate the further growth and differentiation of T-cells and B-cells. In the presence of antigen and activated T-cells, B-cells will proliferate, expand clonally, and differentiate into plasma cells. Plasma cells secrete antibody into the blood and lymph. The antibody binds to the antigen that stimulated its production. This response is also antigen-specific and known as humoral immunity
The immune response is our body’s incredibly complex defense system
comprised of trillions of cells with the purpose to defend us against
substances that do not belong in our bodies and can potentially cause us harm.
Immunologist segregate the immune response into that involving a humoral
system comprised primarily of B-cells which produce antibodies, and the cell
mediated system containing macrophages and the various T-Cells.
Microparticulate Beta glucan works through activation of unique receptors on
the surface of the Macrophage and Dendritic immune cells that are exact
matches for the Beta glucan molecule. This means Beta 1,3/1,6 glucan extracted
from yeast cell wall stands alone in ability to powerfully potentiate these
huge white immune blood cells, which are the first line of defense in your
body.
Macrophage literally means, “big eater” and these constantly vigilant
policeman in your system are just that! These immune cells recognize, engulf
and destroy any cells, organisms or substances that are “non-self” or do
not belong in the body.
Macrophages are the immune cells that start and play a major roll in directing
the immune process. They not only fight individually, but they send chemical
faxes to the other defense fighters in the immune system. The key is to
enhance their arsenal of defense by arming them with better weapons and making
their ability to recognize the “bad guys” more readily than normal or when
suppressed.
The immune response is activated when ill health invaders such as viruses,
bacteria, fungi and parasites enter our body through the air we breathe, the
water we drink and the food we eat; plus our skin. The white blood cells
called macrophages, engage these various invaders and literally eat them
without regard to the type of invader. This response is known as “nonspecific”
with the only criteria being the macrophage knows what is being attacked does
not originate from the host body and is “nonself.”
The macrophages are critical in alerting the remainder of the immune response,
including the Helper T-Cells that in turn communicate with the cytotoxic
killer T-Cells, the NK (natural killer) T-Cells and the B-Cells to initiate
and fulfill the immune cascade. The macrophages produce cytokines that are
essentially the protein messengers of the immune system. Beta glucan is again
unique in promoting the Interleukin 1 (IL1) production that is critical to
insulin production in the pancreas. The Beta glucan nutritionally modulates
and potentiates the macrophage to maintain a state of readiness.
The activated macrophage digest an invader such as a virus and displays pieces
of the virus known as antigens on the macrophage surface. All “nonself”
has unique antigens that act as name tags for the millions of viruses,
bacteria, fungi and parasites that attack us daily. The helper T-Cells
recognize specific antigens on the macrophage surface (apc cells) and binds to
the macrophage. The helper T-Cell then evaluates the situation and calls in
the various immune system components needed to fight back effectively against
a specific antigen.
The helper T-Cells also activate the humoral side of the immune response,
including the B-Cells which on presentation of a specific antigen, produce
specific antibodies for killing or neutralizing the invader. These antibodies
then bind to the antigens on the surface of the health invaders, enabling the
macrophages and various T-Cells to attack to kill the invaders by ingestion or
by emission of various chemicals.
This binding also alerts blood components known as complements (actually 25
different proteins) to puncture holes in invader infected cells. This
facilitates phagocytosis, a big word meaning the eating by phagocytes such as
the macrophage of the invader.
As the health invader is brought under control, the activated T and B-Cells
are signaled to stop attacking by suppressor T-Cells. Another type of T-Cell,
the Memory T-Cells, remain behind to respond quickly against the same type of
invader, if the same health invader attempts to attack again. We often
translate this to mean we are building up an immunity to various viruses,
bacteria, funguses or parasites.
In various parts of the body, the macrophage may be referred to as: Lungs -
Alveolar cells; Kidneys - Mesangial cells; Brain - Microglial cells; Liver -
Kupffer cells; and Skin – dendritic Langerhans cells. The macrophages, as
each of us, become less able to fight back and their vision becomes suspect as
we grow older or are compromised by disease. Beta glucan helps overcome these
deficiencies by arming the macrophages with “immunition™” to have
greater fire power and improved ability to recognize the pathogens that
assault our bodies daily in the form of viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites
and radiation.
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