Somebody help! Immunity chapter is killing me......

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Hi all,

Well, I'm not usually so frantic, but since I'm taking A&P 2 in the summer semester right now, we only have one measly week to cover the Lymphatic/ Immunity chapter.....I am COMPLETELY lost for some reason. I wish I could be more specific! I understand the lymphatic portion of it, but immunity is right up there with reading a book in some obscure language for me.....perhaps it's driving me crazy because there are only a few days till we move on to the next chapter, but if anybody out there has any tips concerning immunity, please advise! Our instructor said the most difficult chapter would be the endocrine system, but that was relatively easy for me. I keep repeating to myself, "a few more weeks, a few more weeks", lol. If this darn book hadn't cost a small fortune, I'd have tossed it into the river by now!! :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.

what part about immunity are you concerned about?

The primary first line of defense?skin, mucous membrans etc...

The secondary first line of defense? Inflammation, fever etc...

B cells? T-cells? (CD4+ vs CD8+)

macrophages?

Types of antibodies? IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG, IgM

MCH I vs MHC II?

Interleukin 4 & 12? TH1 vs TH2

If you can tell me where you don't understand, I will try to help out (I just did micro and got an A and may tutor people in micro next semester!)

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Hi beachbedhead, at first I wanted to say, "all of the above!" but really, I guess I'm mostly confused about the process of the cellular immune response and the humoral immune response....thank you for your help on this!!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Lol I never fully understood immunity till pathophysiology in nursing school! My A&P teacher was not good.

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Specializes in Med-Surg/DOU/Ortho/Onc/Rehab/ER/.
Hi beachbedhead, at first I wanted to say, "all of the above!" but really, I guess I'm mostly confused about the process of the cellular immune response and the humoral immune response....thank you for your help on this!!

My teacher has an awesome ppt that does animation for this. If there was someway to send it to you I would.

What you need to know is that once an APC (antigen presenting cell) present a fragment of the foreign body or virus or bacteria on MCH II (antigen of a b cell or macrophage). A t helper cell aka cd4+ cell will "alarm" both humoral and cell mediated immunity. We that t helper cell will send out b cell and t cell growth factors (I am giving you the physio bit, not micro cause that's more in depth).

Anyway the b cell growth factor makes b cell make plasma cells which secrete antibodies. You know antibodies are useful for neutralization, opsonization etc...

T cell growth factor initiates cell mediated immunity. Which is when a infected cell presents on a MHC I antigen to a cyto toxic t cell or in micro, CD8+.

Anyway you know that once the antigen on the cytotoxic t cell (called CD8) meets the MHC I of the infected cell. Well they hook up and the cytotoxic t cell sends out chemicals like perforin to destroy the infected cell.

If you need more help let me know. You can pm me and I can try and e mail the ppt to you. The animation on it is awesome!

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Great! Thank you for the help! You will be a great tutor, if you decide to do that. I'm going to be studying the chapter through the weekend, and hopefully I'll be done with it by Monday or so.....you know, I've taken two summer semesters before, you'de think I'd know better by now,lol. But anyway, I'll PM you for that info....I do great with animation. :)

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