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The mucosal immune system consists of a cellular component, humoral immunity, and defense mechanisms that prevent the invasion of microorganisms and harmful foreign substances into the body. These defense mechanisms can be divided into physical barriers ( epithelial lining , mucus , cilia function , intestinal peristalsis , etc.) and chemical ...
The epithelial surfaces form a physical barrier that is impermeable to most infectious agents, acting as the first line of defense against invading organisms. [3] Desquamation (shedding) of skin epithelium also helps remove bacteria and other infectious agents that have adhered to the epithelial surface.
[13] [14] In the stomach, gastric acid serves as a chemical defense against ingested pathogens. [15] Within the genitourinary and gastrointestinal tracts, commensal flora serve as biological barriers by competing with pathogenic bacteria for food and space and, in some cases, changing the conditions in their environment, such as pH or available ...
The gut-associated lymphoid tissue lies throughout the intestine, covering an area of approximately 260–300 m 2. [5] In order to increase the surface area for absorption, the intestinal mucosa is made up of finger-like projections (), covered by a monolayer of epithelial cells, which separates the GALT from the lumen intestine and its contents.
An immune response is a physiological reaction which occurs within an organism in the context of inflammation for the purpose of defending against exogenous factors. These include a wide variety of different toxins, viruses, intra- and extracellular bacteria, protozoa, helminths, and fungi which could cause serious problems to the health of the host organism if not cleared from the body.
Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis, or an inflammation of the lining of the stomach and intestines, which leads to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps ...
Defensin mimetics, also called host defense peptide (HDP) mimetics, are completely synthetic, non-peptide, small molecule structures that mimic defensins in structure and activity. [51] Similar molecules, such as brilacidin , are being developed as antibiotics , [ 52 ] anti-inflammatories for oral mucositis , [ 53 ] [ 54 ] and antifungals ...
Non-specific immunity, or innate immunity, is the immune system with which you were born, made up of phagocytes and barriers. Phagocytosis, derived from the Greek words phagein, meaning to eat, kytos or cell, and “osis” meaning process, was first described by Élie Metchnikoff, who won the Nobel Prize 100 years ago. Phagocytosis involves ...