IUBio

help with 'how the cells of the immune system are activated'

e.martin e.martin at virgin.net
Sun Apr 20 15:07:58 EST 1997


I am doing a Microbiology Bsc at Newcastle.  From what I've heard it is in
one of two ways, both have neither been prover or disproven.

The Self/Nonself-  This "model" explains that they are activated when the
immune systems "spots" an organism that was not with it in its (The human)
early stages of life.

The Danger Model-  This one is a bit more contreversial.  It explains it by
saying that when a cell dies naturally (programmed cell death) none of its
contents are released, but when it is killed by something other than a
natural death than it explodes, this spills its contents into what is
called the dendritic fluid, this fluid activates the immune system to fight
the invaders.  It has been found that the dendritic fluid dies under high
concentrations of oxygen and if an organ is placed into an high oxygen
atmoshphere it chances of rejection in a new body will be dramatically cut.

I am not sure about all that completely but I think all the info is correct

Robert Martin




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