Immunity

• What are phagocytes?

  A type of white blood cell
• What do phagocytes do?

  Phagocytes surrounds and engulfs and destroy pathogens or foreign particles in the body / blood.
• How do phagocytes destroy pathogens?


  The phagocytes membrane surrounds the pathogen and enzymes found inside the cell break down the pathogen in order to destroy it.
• Why are phagocytes called non-specific?


  they destroy all pathogens that they encounter so they’re called non-specific
• What are lymphocytes?


  another type of white blood cell
• What do lymphocytes do?


  They recognise proteins on the surface of pathogens called antigens. They detect that these are foreign not naturally occurring within your body and produce antibodies
• How long can it take for lymphocytes to produce antibodies? 


  a few days. during this time you may feel ill.
• What do the antibodies do?


  cause pathogens to stick together and make it easier for phagocytes to engulf them.
• what do some pathogens produce?


  toxins - these make you feel ill
• What do lymphocytes do to those toxins?


  produce antitoxins to neutralise the toxins.
• Why are lymphocytes called specific?


  both the antibodies and the antitoxins are highly specific to the antigen on the pathogen. So the lymphocytes that produce them are called ‘specific’