Common Facts about the Immune System - Essay Example

Immune System Immune system Immune system is the organism’s defence mechanism against any infecting body. The immune system comprises of several defence mechanisms that together kill the infecting body. There is immense importance of the immune system in case of any parasitic penetration into the body of living organisms. Living organisms have skin that protects them from harsh impacts of parasitic organisms. If the parasitic organism still invades inside the skin, the different types of white blood cells (particularly in mammals) release different chemicals that destroy the invading organisms. A dog suffers from a dorsal laceration injury after struggling under a strand of barbed wire. The immune system plays an important role in responding to this injury. The injury exposes the internal dermis that lacks the basic protection of outer skin and do have blood vessels. The blood comes out of the injured blood vessels. At the very initial stage the mechanism of Haemostasis come to action and makes the blood platelets to build a blot on the injured region and stop the bleeding. After that the mechanism of Haemostasis makes the exposed part of the injury to bind together with the help of some proteins present in the blood. The proteins are often named as coagulation protein. On the other hand, the Leucocytes play an important role in restricting the bacteria, virus and other micro-organisms and pathogens to move freely in the blood stream making their way to vital organs. Neutrophils become active as any other microorganism particularly bacteria enter the body. Neutrophils produce certain type of digestive enzymes that destroy the cell wall of the bacteria and digest the whole bacterium. The Monocytes in the blood destroy the damages body cells. Other parasitic organisms that are capable of producing allergy are taken care by Eosinophils. Eosinophils are effective in killing the parasitic organisms. The dog will certainly feel drowsy due to the impact of the pain, inflammation and irritation and due to little blood loss. However, the brain receptors reduce strength of the signals attained from the inflammation. Inflammation activates the immune system. It is the biological response of the cells and tissue that require urgent attention from the immune systems of the body. The immune system lowers the blood pressure at the injured location to prevent the blood loss and to build a clot at the injured place (Dodds, 2014). The inflammation responses are cascaded by the activation of blood plasma that releases enzymes to fight the injury. The enzymatic processes release certain type of chemical compounds that react against the infectious organisms. Responses regarding the injury are directly proportional to the type and degree of injury. The larger the degree of injury, the responses will be of greater degree. Numerous mediators present in the blood like macrophages, mast cells, fibroblasts, lymphocytes, monocytes and numerous other mediators are capable of stimulating fever (increase in body temperature), allergy reactions or anaphylaxis shock. Moreover, the inflammatory responses are also influenced by the cytokines that chemically influence the process. Most of the cytokines comes under the category of growth factors. Growth factors are the certain type of chemical compounds that make the cells to multiply and increase their number. At the injured location the cytokines make the cells to divide and grow and make the cell formation according to the cells matrix. Some of the cytokine may have negative impacts. The immune system makes the cytokines to reach the injured location with the help of leucocytes and release chemicals like chemokines which is responsible for cell growth. Some cytokine release certain type of chemicals that help the cells to release toxins attained from the injury. Some release chemicals that digest the micro-orgasms and even the injured cells and tissues (Peteducation.com, 2014). A sheep becomes infected with bluetongue virus. The immune system behaves differently from above scenario. In a viral infection, the body immune system fights the viral infection in a clam but steady manner. The immune responses depend on the type of viral infection. The virus begins to multiply as it enters the body. There is no or reduced inflammation in such an infection as no external injury or bleeding is cured by the body. The virus penetration may weaken the immune system as immune system takes time to generate immunity against the virus. Bothe the processes of cell mediated immunity and humoral mediated immunity occur at the same time. Internal injuries like the swelling of lips, face and tongue (Animal Diseases, 2014). As the virus multiplies the numbers of cytokines increase that to kill the invading virus that brings the symptoms. The fever as the result of the blue tongue virus may kill the goat. Many leucocytes try to digest the virus but the multiplication ratio of the virus is rapid as compared to that of the leucocytes. The immune system takes time to prepare antibodies for the virus that weakens the immune systems. There is no role of plasma, inflammatory response system and growth factors in this case. The immune system depends on the amount of leucocytes particularity the amount of antibodies for the virus (V\"Ogtlin and Hofmann et al., 2013). Vaccination plays an important role in supporting the animal’s immune response when challenged by a pathogen as vaccines built immunity against a disease. Vaccines are important in developing antibodies for a disease that is not present in the animal. It is a precaution against a disease or an infectious pathogen. Vaccines are attained from an animal that has a higher immunity against a disease. Small amount of the pathogens are injecting into the blood stream of the animal under a controlled condition and then the antibodies are extracted from the blood of the animals. Then the antibodies, attained from the blood of the animals having immunity, are injected into the bodies of the other animals. The vaccination improves the immune system of the animals by making the cytokines to prepare and release certain set of chemicals that do have the tendency to react with the invading organism and kill the organism making the host organism to be rid of the invading organism. The more the organism remains prepared for the invading organism, the less it will be infected with the invading organism. However, the vaccinations do have certain age limits. A yearly vaccination reduces risk of catching infections with in years (Roeder and Taylor, 2007, pp. 253-263). References Animal Diseases. 2014. Bluetongue. [online] Available at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-diseases/a-z/bluetongue/ [Accessed: 22 Mar 2014]. Dodds, W. J. 2014. Canine immune system and the relation to disease including seizures and cancer in dogs. [online] Available at: http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ImmuneSystem.htm [Accessed: 22 Mar 2014]. Peteducation.com. 2014. The Immune System of Dogs and Cats. [online] Available at: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2083&aid=957 [Accessed: 22 Mar 2014]. Roeder, P. and Taylor, W. 2007. Mass vaccination and herd immunity: cattle and buffalo. Revue scientifique et technique (International Office of Epizootics), 26 (1), pp. 253--263. V"Ogtlin, A., Hofmann, M. A., Nenniger, C., Renzullo, S., Steinrigl, A., Loitsch, A., Schwermer, H., Kaufmann, C. and Th"Ur, B. 2013. Long-term infection of goats with bluetongue virus serotype 25. Veterinary microbiology. Read More