Logged out
Access All our Essays in an Instant
Swap your work for FREE access, or pay £4.99 for instant access
How does an individual mammal distinguish its own cells and proteins from those of its invading enemies?
Member rating:
(2 votes)
| Words:
| Submitted: Thu Jul 11 2002
Page Preview
On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:
How does an individual mammal distinguish its own cells and proteins from those of its invading enemies? When bacteria or viruses get through our body's outer defences they may cause disease. To prevent this we have an immune system made up of cells and molecules that are constantly on patrol looking for and destroying foreign organisms. For the system to be effective the cells and molecules that are involved must be able to recognise foreign material and distinguish it from similar chemicals that make up our tissues. This is a remarkable feat of molecular recognition (Alberts et al 1983 p.951-952). Any material that can trigger the immune system into action is called an antigen. Antigens are foreign macromolecules not usually present in the body; they are the proteins, polysaccharides or glycoproteins that are on the surface of invading bacteria or viruses. Some of these invading pathogens produce harmful chemicals, called toxins. Toxins...
Get instant access
- Instant, unlimited access to our documents in full
- Swap your work for free access, or pay £4.99
- To see the full version of this document and 147,038 others
Receive email updates for this category
- Simply tell us your email address and receive a weekly Study Help Email for FREE
- Receive 3 FREE essay views with each email
- Get all the latest essays from Coursework.Info & discussion from TheStudentRoom.co.uk
