Our body has several defense strategies against invading organisms. We saw in the article “Characteristics of epithelial tissue”, that one of the protections of our body against invading agents is our skin. Well, our organism has a very complex system, whose cells are highly specialized in fighting any type of invading organism. The system we are talking about is the immunity system, called by some of immune system, and he is the responsible for defending our body against microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria etc.
Our immunity systemis composed of cells called lymphocytes. In this article we will study only two types, the T lymphocytes and the B lymphocytes.
You T lymphocytes differ into two other types, the helper T lymphocytesand the cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
You helper T lymphocytesencourage the production of antibodies by B lymphocytes, while cytotoxic T lymphocytesare responsible for the destruction of cells that are invaded by viruses or cancer cells.
T lymphocytes are cells that are part of the immune system
You B lymphocytes are produced in the red bone marrow and are found in our blood. They are specialized cells in the production of antibodies(proteins that fight foreign organisms) scientifically called antigens. When our body comes in contact with antigens, you B lymphocytes start to produce antibodies to fight them. It is interesting to note that for each type of antigen there is a specific type of antibody. By joining the antigen, O antibody prevents them from spreading to the rest of the body and also facilitates the action of cells such as macrophages, who digest these antigens.
In our body there are some lymphocytes that are part of what we call “immune memory”. At "immune memory", some lymphocytes produce antibodies that specialize in fighting a certain type of antigen. This way, if our organism has contact with the antigen more than once, the antibodies will make it useless. This happens with diseases like chickenpox and measles, for example. If a person catches one of these diseases, he may even have contact with the virus, but the disease will not manifest itself.
The B lymphocytes act as soldiers in our body, fighting any foreign organism that happens to invade it.
It is because of this ability that our body has to memorize the antigens that we take the vaccines, as they are produced from toxins produced by antigens, or even part of them. That way, when we take the vaccine, ours antibodies will recognize that foreign body, fighting it, and the best, they will be memorized in our body so that we do not catch this disease.
Vaccination is important because it prevents certain diseases from invading our bodies
By Paula Louredo
Graduated in Biology
