Anatomy & Physiology › Section S · The lymphatic and immune system › Topic S.2
Barrier defences and innate immunity
Most microbes that land on you never cause an infection, because defences you were born with stop them within minutes or hours. This topic covers those defences: the barriers, the cells that eat or kill invaders, the proteins that tag and puncture them, and the familiar heat and swelling of inflammation.
In this topic
- Fast, general and always ready
- Barrier defences
- Phagocytes
- Natural killer cells and granulocytes
- Recognising danger
- Soluble mediators
- The complement system
- Worked example: complement meets a bacterium
- Inflammation
- Worked example: a splinter in the thumb
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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