Summary Immunology part of Immunology and Thermoregulation (ADP-20306)

Samenvatting immunologie

College 1
Immunology: Study on cells, tissues/organs and molecules involved in the recognition, inactivation,
and removal of foreign (non-self) or dangerous (including self) materials. Population, animal, cell and
molecular level.
Immune surveillance: recognition, and removal of self (oncogenic) cells: cancer, or senescent cells
Antigen: (Antibody generator): compound that initiates an immune response, either innate or
adaptive

Why (veterinary) immunology important?
 An animal right: health (& welfare)
 Lower medical costs
 Optimal production
 Animals and man share many immune features
 60-75% of infectious diseases of humans are from animal origin! ----- Zoonoses
 Keep livestock near cities (risk)???
 A large part of our DNA is of viral origin (proviral DNA)
 There is an intricate relationship between our intestinal microbiota and the immune system

Types of immunity:
 Natural/innate
o ‘Invariable’?
o Fast and acute
o Non-specific and broad activity
o Precedes and directs specific immunity
o Training
 Specific
o Adaptive*
 Self acquired: active adaptation due to
 Infection
 Active vaccination
 Experimental: sensitization in vivo
 Or: passively acquired by
 Passive vaccination (donor serum)
 Maternal immunity
o Before birth all human babies were passively ‘vaccinated’ in
the womb by their mother! Maternal IgG antibodies
o Many children are also passively vaccinated (IgA) by breast
feeding!
o Specific
o Learning and maintaining memory
o Slow

Before birth all human babies were passively ‘vaccinated’ in the womb by their mother (maternal IgG
antibodies). And many children are also passively vaccinated by breast feeding (IgA)

Most principles and dogma’s of human immunology are true for (food and wild life) animals with
some exceptions for birds, fish, and reptiles! Also plants, insects and bacteria show forms of
‘resistance’ to infections.


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,Immunity is not always equivalent to (biologically) relevant protective disease resistance!

Is immunity always good?
 Protective
o Concomitant: (live!) pathogen remains present and helps to maintain memory!
o Sterilizing: pathogen completely removed (memory loss)
o Modulating: pathogen present but inactivated
 Counter-protective
o Protection or enhancement of pathogen (like HIV)
 Irrelevant: see Th1-TH2 dogma
 Harmful:
o Pathology/inflammation
o Hypersensitivity
o Autoimmunity




Innate immunity:
 Prevention of infection
 Degradation of microbes
 First line of defence, gaining time
 Activation of specific immunity
 Effector of specific immunity
 No specific memory, but ‘training’
 Always present
 Like skin
 Cells:
o Phagocytes
o Granulocytes
o Killer cells
o Antigen presenting cells
 Proteins:
o Lytic enzymes
o Acute phase proteins
o Complement and defensins
 Radicals: O2, OH-, H2O2, HClO3, NOx
 Depending on species, activation and full functioning of specific immunity after primary
infection may take 7 – 10 days
o As a consequence barriers and innate immunity are highly important


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, Leucocytes (white blood cells): mononuclear cells:
lymphocyte and monocyte; granulocytes: neutrophil
(polymorph), eosinophil and basophil

Specific immunity:
 Cells:
o T cells
 Helper (Th) regulation
 Regulator (Treg) regulation
 Suppressor (Ts) regulation
 Cytotoxic (Tcyt) effector
 Memory (Tmem) memory
 T-cell dependent or cellular immunity
o B cells
 Makes antibodies
 Antigen presentation
 memory
 antibody mediated or humoral immunity
 Proteins
o Interleukines (cytokines)
o immunoglobulins

College 2
Innate system cells:
 Phagocytes
 Granulocytes
 Platelets
 Antigen-presenting (accessory) cells
 Natural Killer (NK) cells
Specific system cell:
 T cells or T lymphocytes
 B cells or B lymphocytes

Haemopoietic: is the formation of blood cellular components

Lymphoïd stemcell  T cells and B cells
Myeloïd progrenitor
 Granulocytes
 Megakaryocyte  platelets
 Monocyte  macrophages
 Dendrites
 Natural Killer cells

Absolute levels and (relative) frequenties of
cells and cell types in blood and tissues
(lymph nodes…….

Lymphocytes: specific recognition via receptors: TCR on T cells and BCR (surface immunoglobulin) on
B cells
 Regulation: helper T cells / regulation T cells
 effector: (cytotoxic) T cells, and B- and plasma cells


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