The Immune System

The human body is an amazing thing. It has survived the test of time over millions of years, countering plague, infections, and all kinds of sickness. This is all because of the bodies immune system which protects the body daily by defending it from antigens. This immune system is one that is directly responsible for keeping your body healthy and maintaining homeostasis. When you come in contact with germs, (meaning harmful bacteria, virus, fungi, protozoa, etc. etc.) your body employs various mechanisms to make sure the germs are contained. When the body is exposed to many germs it can be over encumbered and will get sick. The immune system, while sometimes can be compromised, protects the body through innate immunity, acquired immunity, and through leukocytes.

To start, let us examine the leukocytes, which are white blood cells that are essentially the cornerstone of the immune system. Leukocytes are integral defenders of our body and are responsible for flushing out a grand amount of germs from our body each day. Leukocytes travel in your bloodstream searching for pathogens. There are five different types of leukocytes monocytes, lymphocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, and basophils. These are all created in bone marrow from a multipotent cell known as the hematopoietic stem cell. The leukocytes survive for three or four days before dying, that is why there are (on average) 4,500 - 11,000 of them per microliter of blood. Each of these cells are designed to attack a certain type of antigen or maintain the structure of the system. Monocytes are large white blood cells whose primary aim is to develop into macrophages, macrophages are large phagocytes that are able to move out the vascular system and swallow pathogens. Lymphocy...

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...g to make stem cells able to reprogram the bodies systems and fight of disease. Recently new research was applied to treating Leukaemia (a type of cancer in which the body produces many surges of immature white blood cells) where scientists identified components of HIV and reconstructed it into a virus with a sole purpose of killing the immature white blood cell population. After applied properly the patient was near death but was given medication and healed quickly as all traces of the leukaemia disappeared. In these new experiments scientists develop new methods to stop diseases from killing others and strengthening the immune system. Yet even with new technology humanity faces potential danger in terms of disease, as the spread of Swine Flu and SARS show, it still remains important for humans to protect their bodies and ready themselves for any biological attack.