Biology: The Immune System and Diseases
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24 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 disease | any change, other than an injury, that disrupts the normal functions of the body |
| pathogen | disease-causing agents |
| germ theory of disease | conclusion that infectious diseases were caused by microorganisms of different types, commonly called germs |
| Koch's postulates | a series of rules that identify the microorganism that causes a specific disease |
| vector | animals that carry pathogens from person to person |
| antibiotic | compounds that kill bacteria without harming the cells of human or animal hosts |
| immunity | the process in which the infection is fought off through the production of cells that inactivate foreign substances or cells |
| inflammatory response | a nonspecific defense reaction to tissue damage caused by injury or infection |
| fever | an elevated increase in body temperature |
| interferon | a group of proteins that helps the cell resist viral infection |
| immune response | specific defenses carried out by the immune system if a pathogen is able to get past the body's nonspecific defenses |
| antigen | a substance that triggers the immune response |
| humoral immunity | when B cells provide immunity against antigens and pathogens |
| cell-mediated immunity | when T cells provide a defense against abnormal cells abd pathogens inside living cells |
| antibody | proteins that recognize and bind to antigens |
| vaccination | the injection of a weakened form of a pathogen to produce immunity |
| active immunity | the type of immunity produced by the body's reaction to a vaccine |
| passive immunity | when antibodies produced by other animals against a pathogen are injected into the bloodstream |
| allergy | the most common overreactions of the immune system to antigens |
| histamine | chemical that increase the flow of blood and fluids to surrounding areas |
| asthma | a chronic respiratory disease in which the air passages become narrower than normal |
| risk factor | anything that increase the chance of disease or injury |
| tumor | when a single cell or a group of cells begin to grow and divide uncontrollably resulting in a mass of growing tissue |
| carcinogen | chemical compounds that are known to cause cancer |
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