What does the innate immune system do?
Unlock the secrets of your body's shield! Discover what the innate immune system does and why it's your health's unsung hero. Dive into a world of defense.
What does the innate immune system do and what is it?
The immune system enduringly protects us against outside aggressions but also those of our organism, to maintain the organic integrity of our body.
There is an innate immune system in the brain. It is inducible in a transient mode from the structures that avoid the blood-brain barrier and thereafter inside parenchymal microglia during systemic infection. Transcriptional activation of genes encoding proteins of the innate immunity also takes place in diseases of the central nervous system.
All the defense mechanisms that our immune arrangement has to protect us can be grouped under the term “immune response”.
Types of the innate immune system
There are two kinds of immune responses, although unusual, they work in a coordinated and integrated manner.
– The innate immune response (natural)
– The adaptive immune response (acquired)
The skin and the mucous layers constitute the first barrier of defense toward the microorganisms which try to enter our body. Any offender who manages to get past this first line of defense, for example on the time of a skin injury, will face the innate immune system, our second line of defense.
When something foreign to our body, such as bacteria, enters our membranes and starts to multiply, scattering monocytes turn into macrophages.
At a later time, they release pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 or tumor necrosis factor alfa (TNFa) to recruit other macrophages to the site of infection.
Activated macrophages discharge cytokines such as interleukin 6 or interferon-alpha (IFNa) and beta (IFNb) to stimulate endothelial cells.
This aids the passage of other neutrophils from the blood to the tissues. Neutrophils move to the site of germs to reinforce macrophages for the removal of bacteria.
Next, the bacteria are slaughtered, the macrophage is responsible for tidying up the place of infection.
In most cases, the innate immune system can recognize and destroy the preponderance of harmful agents. Despite, in some cases, this certainty is deficient to effectively defend our body. Fortuitously, humans have a third line of defense: the adaptive immune system.
