Immune System, part 2: Crash Course A&P #46
In the penultimate episode of Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology, Hank explains your adaptive immune system. The adaptive immune system's humoral ...
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What’s true in World of Warcraft is also true in your immune system: To defeat your enemy, you have to know your enemy. Uncover its weaknesses. Learn how to see it, before it sees you. We’ve already talked about how your innate defense system keeps out, or quietly neutralizes, pathogens without much too much fuss. But sooner or later, a threat’s gonna come along that’s stronger than what the first-responders can handle. That’s when it’s time for the adaptive, or acquired immune system to step in. While your innate system takes its zero-tolerance policy very seriously, and tries to toast any foreign microbe that it encounters, your adaptive system does things differently. It has to be expressly introduced to a specific pathogen, and recognize it as a threat, before it will attack. As its n...
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What’s true in World of Warcraft is also true in your immune system: To defeat your enemy, you have to know your enemy. Uncover its weaknesses. Learn how to see it, before it sees you. We’ve already talked about how your innate defense system keeps out, or quietly neutralizes, pathogens without much too much fuss. But sooner or later, a threat’s gonna come along that’s stronger than what the first-responders can handle. That’s when it’s time for the adaptive, or acquired immune system to step in. While your innate system takes its zero-tolerance policy very seriously, and tries to toast any foreign microbe that it encounters, your adaptive system does things differently. It has to be expressly introduced to a specific pathogen, and recognize it as a threat, before it will attack. As its n...
