Chapter 9.2

Immune System Terms

• Antibody:

  • A protein, not a cell, produced by B lymphocytes (B cells).

  • Y-shaped, binds to antigens to inactivate foreign invaders.

  • Crucial for the adaptive immune system.

• Antigen:

  • A substance, often on foreign invaders (e.g., bacteria), that provokes an immune response.

  • Antibodies bind to antigens, marking pathogens for destruction through clumping, inactivation, or targeting by white blood cells.

• Histamine:

  • Molecule involved in immune response; can cause swelling, itching, and irritation as a result of vasodilation, increasing blood flow to recruit white blood cells and immune system chemicals to the site of damage.

  • Its release leads to inflammation, characterized by swelling, heat, redness, pain, and itching.

• Immunity: Protection against disease.

• Pathogen: Anything that causes disease, typically microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, or fungi.

• Phagocytosis: Cellular eating; the process by which cells engulf and destroy pathogens or debris.

  • Neutrophils and macrophages are phagocytic; they engulf bacteria and trap them in vesicles for destruction.

  • It's part of the innate immune response, a primitive and nonspecific defense mechanism.

Combining Forms

• Chromo/Chromato: Color.

• Cyto: Cell.

• Erythro: Red.

• Granulo: Granules.

• Hemo/Haemato: Blood (e.g., hemopoiesis/hematopoiesis - formation of blood).

• Immuno: Immune or safe.

• Leuko: White.

• Lympho: Lymph.

• Neutro: Neutral (e.g., neutrophils).

• Nucleo: Nucleus.

• Patho: Disease.

• Phago: Eat or swallow.

• Phlebo: Vein.

• Plaso/Plazo: Formation or growth.

• Thrombo: Blood clot.

Prefixes

• Auto: Self or same; related to autoimmune conditions.

• Baso/Bayo: Base or basic (pH scale); basophils are attracted to basic dye.

• Macro: Large or long; macrocyte refers to a large red blood cell.

• Micro: Small; microorganisms (viruses and bacteria) are small and invisible to the naked eye.

• Mono: One.

• Pro: Before or promoting.

• Poly: Many or much.

Suffixes

• Cyt: Cell (leukocyte, erythrocyte, thrombocyte, macrocyte)

• Emia: Condition of the blood.

• Cis: Condition or process.

• Gen: Origin or production (generating).

• Lysis: Destruction, breakdown, rupture

• Osis: Abnormal condition.

• Penia: Deficiency of.

• Philia: Attraction for.

• Poiesis: Production or formation.

• Raj/Rhage: Flowing forth (hemorrhage).

Examples of Suffixes

• Leukopenia: Low white blood cell count, indicating a deficiency of white blood cells.

• Thrombocytopenia: Deficiency of platelets, which impairs the ability to clot properly.

• Eosinophilia: A large amount of eosinophils being drawn to a certain area

  • Eosinophils fight off parasitic worms and modulate inflammation.

  • Eosinophilic esophagitis: when eosinophils leaving to the lining of the esophagus indicates that there is a lot of inflammation due to allergic response.

• Hemopoiesis: General production of blood.

• Leukopoiesis: Formation of the white blood cells.

• Erythropoiesis: The formation of the red blood cells. The hormone that promotes is EPO or erythroboietin.

Adjectives and Related Terms

• Hematopoietic: Pertaining to the formation of blood cells.

• Hemolytic: Rupture of blood cells.

  • Hemolytic anemia involves the rupture of red blood cells.

• Hemorrhagic: Pertaining to hemorrhaging or bleeding.

• Hemostasis: Stopping of bleeding.

• Autoimmunity: Immune system attacking the body's own tissues

Adjectives and Related Terms (Immune System)

• Autoinmunity:

  • The body's own immune system components starts attacking body tissues accidentally.

  • Lupus is where the immune system cells are targeting body tissues

• Cytopathic: Pertaining to cellular damage.

  • Cytopathic effect (CPE) indicates cellular damage due to viral infection.

• Inflammatory: Pertaining to or promoting inflammation.

  • Inflammation involves heat, redness, and pain in response to trauma or injury.

Medical Conditions

• Pancytopenia: Deficiency in all types of blood cells (red, white, and platelets), indicating a problem with the bone marrow.

• Polycythemia: Too many red blood cells, making the blood too viscous and prone to cardiovascular problems.

• Septicemia: Spread of microorganisms or their toxins throughout the blood, leading to a systemic infection.

• Hemochromatosis: Genetic disorder where the body excessively absorbs and stores iron, leading to multi-organ dysfunction and discoloration of body tissues.

• Anemia: Reduced oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood due to various reasons.

  • It could be caused by not having the right number of red blood cells or the amount of hemoglobin is not being constructed correctly.

Types of Anemia Due to Impaired Red Blood Cell Production

• Aplastic Anemia: Insufficient production of red blood cells in the bone marrow, leading to a greatly reduced red blood cell count.

• Iron Deficiency Anemia: Insufficient iron to properly construct hemoglobin, resulting in pale and unhealthy red blood cells.

• Pernicious Anemia: Vitamin B12 deficiency needed for proper red blood cell synthesis, leading to macrocytes (large, bloated red blood cells).

  • This happens because people aren't getting enough B12 or can't absorb it for a reason.

Other Types of Anemia

• Hemorrhagic Anemia: Blood loss anemia due to profuse bleeding.

• Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anemia: Genetically inherited disorders involving faulty hemoglobin construction.

  • Sickle cell anemia causes red blood cells to collapse into a crescent moon or sickle shape under low oxygen conditions.

  • Thalassemia (Sea blood): Similar to sickle cell but first discovered in populations of people that lived on the Mediterranean Sea.

Clotting Disorders

• Hemophilia: Bleeding disorder due to a deficiency in one or more clotting factors, making it harder to coagulate blood.

• Thrombocytopenia: Low levels of platelets in the blood, hindering the ability to clot effectively.

• Von Willebrand Disease (VWD): Most common inherited bleeding disorder, characterized by a tendency to bleed from mucus membranes due to a missing von Willebrand factor, which links platelets to collagen.

  • It's a bleeding disorder characterized by a tendency to bleed from mucus membrane where they're missing a clotting factor (von Willebrand factor).

• Thrombosis: Abnormal presence of clotting within a blood vessel, potentially blocking blood flow.

  • Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs due to poor movement or circulation, causing formation of a clot in a vein.

Immune System Related Medical Conditions

• Autoimmune Disease: Immune system attacks the body's own tissues.

  • Examples: rheumatoid arthritis, lupus.

• Mononucleosis: Viral infection transmitted through saliva, infecting mononuclear leukocytes (lymphocytes) and causing enlarged lymph nodes and fatigue.

Autoimmune Diseases

• Rheumatoid Arthritis: Autoimmune disease where white blood cells target synovial joints, causing inflammation and damage.

• Lupus (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus): Autoimmune disease that targets various body systems, often presenting with a butterfly rash across the face. Lupus (wolf): redness on the skin that almost looked like a wolf bite.

• Sjogren's Syndrome: Chronic autoimmune disorder where immune cells attack moisture-producing glands, leading to dry and cracked tissues, such as dry tongue.