Introduction

• Immunotolerance is the host's ability to recognize self from nonself materials
• Immunotolerance is responsible in the elimination of foreign materials from the body
• Serology is the study of fluid components of the blood especially antibodies
• Serum is the most encountered specimen in immunologic testing
• In immunologic testing specimens such as CSF and feces can be used other than plasma
• Desirable effects of immune response are the following

  • natural resistance
  • recovery
  • acquired resistance
• Undesirable effects of Imune response are the the following:

  • hypersensitivity
  • allograft rejection
  • autoimmune disease
• Thucydides described a plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. He observed those who recovered from the plague could nurse the sick without being reinfected
• In 1550 A.D Chinese developed a custom of inhaling crust from smallpox lesions to prevent the development of smallpox later in life
• The Chinese method of immunization through inhalation of lesion of smallpox was unsuccessful
• Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced the practice of variolation to western medicine
• Variolation is the injection of materials from smallpox blisters; it is widely practiced in Eastern medicine
• Edward Jenner is widely considered as the father of immunology
• Edward Jenner discovered the smallpox vaccine by using a cowpox virus to treat a young boy who had smallpox
• The word vaccination comes from the Latin word vacca meaning cow.
• Cross-immunity is the development of immunity from one agent helps from an unrelated agent
• Louis Pasteur is considered the father of modern microbiology
• Louis Pasteur discovered the vaccines against rabies, anthrax, and chicken cholera.
• Elie Metchnikoff made the cellular theory of immunity through phagocytosis. He discovered this when he experimented on starfish larvae.
• Antibodies are also known as immunoglobulin or gamma globulin
• Antibodies are glycoproteins produced by the immune system in response to exposure from an immunogenic materials (antigens)
• Antigens are any material that is capable of binding to the product of an immune response
• Products of an immune response includes antibody and sensitized T-cells
• An immunogen is any material that is capable of inducing an immune response in a immunocompetent host
• All immunogens are antigens, but not all antigens are immunogens
• Immune Response is the reaction of an immune system to immunogenic stimulation.
• Humoral immunity is a form of immune defense that is represented by antibodies and other soluble factors in the body and body fluids
• Cell-mediated immunity is a form of immune defense represented by immune cells such as lymphocytes, phagocytic cells, antigen-presenting cells and inflammatory cells.
• In 1890, Emil von Behring, Shibasaburo Kitasato discovered the diphtheria toxin
• In 1891, Robert Koch discovered delayed hypersensitivity, specifically the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, which is type 4.
• In 1898, Paul Ehrlich theorize side chain theory of antibody production
• In 1900, Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups and discovered the ABO blood group.
• In 1902, Charles Richet and Paul Portier discovered the anaphylactic hypersensitivity
• In 1903, Maurice Arthus discovered the Arthus reaction
• In 1903, Almroth Wright discovered Opsonins
• In 1938, John Richardson Marrack proposed the hypothesis of antigen-antibody binding
• In 1941, Albert Coons developed Immunofluorescence assay
• In 1949, Jonas Salk, and Albert Bruce Sabin invented the Polio vaccine
• In 1949, Frank MacFarlane Burnet and Frank Fenner discovered Immunologic tolerance
• In 1953, Graft versus host disease was discovered