Chapter 16: Nonspecific (Innate) Defenses of the Host

Name:_____________________
Reading Worksheet
1. Differentiate innate and adaptive immunity.
- Innate immunity: defenses that are present at birth
- Host defenses that afford protection against any kind of pathogen
- Adaptive immunity: based on specific response to a specific microbe once a
microbe has breached the innate immunity defense
- The ability, obtained during the life of the individual, to produce specific
antibodies and T cells
2. What are the components of the bodys 1st line of defense:
- Skin
- Mucous membranes
3. What are the components of the bodys 2nd line of defense:
- Defensive cells phagocytic cells
- Inflammation
- Fever
- Antimicrobial substances
4. What are the components of the bodys 3rd line of defense:
- B lymphocytes
- T lymphocytes
5. List several of the mechanical and chemical factors that protect the skin and mucous
membranes from microbial invasion:
- Epidermis
- Keratin
- Lacrimal apparatus
- Saliva
- Mucus
- Epiglottis
- Earwax
- Urine
- Vaginal secretions
- Sebum
- Perspiration lysozyme
- Gastric juice
6. Define commensalism:
- One organism uses the body of a larger organism as its physical environment and
may make use of the body to obtain nutrients
- Symbiotic relationship in which two organisms live in association and one is
benefited while the other is neither benefited nor harmed
7. What is meant by the term opportunistic pathogen? Give an example.
- Microorganism that does not cause ordinarily cause disease but can become
pathogenic under certain circumstances
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- Dont cause disease in their normal habitat in healthy person but may do so in a
different environment
- E. coli, S. aureus, S. epidermis, Enterococcus faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
oral streptococci
8. What is meant by the term competitive exclusion and microbial antagonism?
- In microbial antagonism, normal microbiota prevent pathogens from colonizing
the host by competing with them for nutrients (competitive exclusion)
9. List the 5 types of wbcs and state the normal percentages of each of these in the
blood.
a. Neutrophils: 60-70%
b. Lymphocytes: 20-25%
c. Monocytes: 3-8%
d. Eosinophils: 2-4%
e. Basophils: 0.5-1%
10. Which of the cells listed above leave the blood and become macrophages and
dendritic cells?
- Monocytes
11. Which of the cells listed above is the most prevalent phagocytic cell circulating in
the blood?
- Neutrophils
12. Which of the cells listed above are most directly responsible for the immune
response (specific immunity, the bodys 3rd line of defense)?
- Lymphocytes
13. Which of the cells listed above may be substantially elevated in number during a
parasitic infection?
- Eosinophils
14. Which of the cells in #9 plays an important role in releasing substances that cause
an allergic response?
- Basophils
15.

List the steps of phagocytosis.

1) Chemotaxis and adherence of phagocyte to microbe
2) Ingestion of microbe by phagocyte
3) Formation of phagosome (phagocytic vesicle)
4) Fusion of phagosome with lysosome to form a phagolysosome
5) Digestion of ingested microbes by enzymes in the phagolysosome
6) Formation of the residual body containing indigestible material

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7) Discharge of waste materials

16.

Name the two most prevalent types of phagocytic cells:

- Neutrophils
- Monocytes

17. Describe 6 mechanisms by which microorganisms can avoid or escape destruction

by phagocytes. (youll find the animations in MMB very helpful with this)
1) Structures that inhibit adherence: M protein, capsules
- Streptococcus pyrogenes, S. pneumoniae
2) Lyse phagocyte membrane: membrane attack complex
- Listeria monocytogenes
3) Prevent phagosome-lysosome fusion
- HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis
4) Escape phagosome
- Shigella, Rickettsia
5) Survive in phagolysosome after being ingested
- Coxiella burnettii
6) Kill phagocyte with leukocidins
- Staphylococcus aureus
18.

What are the functions of inflammation?

1) Destroy injurious agent, if possible, and to remove it and its byproducts from the

body
2) If destruction not possible, limit effects on the body by confining or walling off
the injurious agent and its byproducts
3) Repair or replace tissue damaged by the injurious agent or its byproducts
19.

List the steps of inflammation:

1) Chemicals such as histamine, kinins, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and cytokines
are released by damaged cells
2) Blood clot forms
3) Abscess starts to form
4) Margination phagocytes stick to endothelium
5) Diapedesis phagocytes squeeze between endothelial cells
6) Phagocytosis of invading bacteria occurs
20.

What cells release the chemical mediators responsible for inflammation?

- Basophils

21. Name 4 different chemical mediators of inflammation and describe the activity of
each.
1) Histamine: causes vasodilation, capillary permeability, smooth muscle
contraction
2) Kinins: causes vasodilation, increased permeability of blood vessels
3) Prostaglandins: hormone like substance released by damaged cells, intensifies
inflammation, help phagocytes move through capillary cells
4) Leukotrienes: produced by mast cells and basophils cause increased
permeability of blood vessels and help attach phagocytes to pathogens
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5) Cytokines: regulates immune response directly or indirectly may induce fever,

pain, or T cell proliferation, brings about vasodilation and increased permeability
.
22. Describe the step-wise mechanism of fever production during an infection with
gram negative bacteria. (check back in chapter 15)
1) Macrophage ingests a gram-negative bacterium
2) Bacterium is degraded in a vacuole, releasing endotoxins that induce the
macrophage to produce cytokines, interleukin-1, and tumor necrosis factor alpha
3) Cytokines are released into the bloodstream by the macrophages, through which
they travel to the hypothalamus, the temperature control center of the brain
4) Cytokines induce the hypothalamus to produce prostaglandins, which reset the
bodys thermostat to a higher temperature, producing fever
23. Briefly define the complement system: (you do not have to know the pathways
of complement activation)
- System of proteins produced by the liver that circulate in blood serum and within
tissues throughout the body complements cells of the immune system in destroying
microbes
- Not adaptable, never changing over persons lifetime considered part of innate
immune system
- Can be recruited into action by adaptive immune system
24. What are two ways through which the complement system becomes activated?
1) Through innate immune response neither antibodies nor T cell receptors are
involved
- Example: certain polysaccharides found on surface of bacteria can activate
the system
- Can occur immediately and does not require prior exposure to the
molecules
2) Specific immune response (most potent) when antibodies bind to antigen at
surface of cell exposing region of antibody in way that allows complement protein
to bind
25. What are the three major consequences (outcomes) of complement activation?
OIL
- Opsonization
- Inflammation
- Lysis (cytolysis)
26. What are interferons? What cells make interferons and what stimulus causes
these cells to produce them? What do interferons do?
- Family of cytokines class of proteins produced by certain animal cells,
lymphocytes and macrophages
- In humans, produced by fibroblasts in connective tissue and by
lymphocytes and other leukocytes
- INF- & INF-: interfere with viral multiplication cause cells to produce antiviral
proteins that inhibit viral replication
- Produced by virus-infected host cells in very small quantities that diffuse to
uninfected neighboring cells
- Both are host-cell-specific but not virus-specific
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- INF-: cause neutrophils and macrophages to phagocytize bacteria

- Produced by lymphocytes
24. Describe the role of siderophores.
- Bacterial iron-binding proteins
- Secreted by pathogenic bacteria to obtain iron to survive in human body
25. Describe the role of AMPs and list 2 examples.
- Broad spectrum antibiotic (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic,
bactericidal)
- May inhibit cell wall synthesis, disrupt membranes, destroy DNA or RNA, lyse
bacterial cells
- Dermcidin: sweat glands
- Defensins: white blood cells (neutrophils, macrophages, epithelium)
26. What is the difference between blood plasma and serum? (see p. 462, focus on
the information in the first column and top of the 2nd column and Figure A)
- Blood plasma: liquid remaining after formed elements are removed from
unclotted blood (by centrifugation)
- Part of blood that contains both the serum and clotting factors (and water)
- Serum: straw-colored liquid remaining after blood is allowed to clot
- Part of blood remaining once clotting factors like fibrin have been removed
contains proteins like albumin and globulins

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STUDY TABLE 16.2 as a review of this chapter.

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