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Article clean up and expansion

As I promised above, I have cleaned up this article (a lot). I expanded some sections that needed it, and removed some information appeared to be copy-and-pasted from the "main articles" on various subjects.

This article DOES need some pictures, I think some of the sections are just too complicated to explain without diagrams. I will see if I can find some, or else just make them. Specifically, I think that diagrams for the following sections would help emmensly:

• Antigen presentation
• CD8 and CD4 Activation
• Th1 vs Th2
• B cell Activation

Also it would be nice if we could include pictures of the various types of innate cells.

If anyone sees/has/can make any of these please post 'em!!--DO11.10 22:34, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Flow of information

As this article is about the immune system, and "the skin is the first line of difense", wouldn't it make sense to start off with the skin section? Nothing in the skin section depends on the information in the lymph section, so I think the lymph section should be either removed or deleted. E946 07:28, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Hypersensitivity section

"These reactions are mediated by T cells, monocytes and macrophages." Monocytes and macrophages are the same thing, they're called monocytes when they're in the blood, macrophages when they're in certain tissues, pulmonary macrophages in the lung, Langerhans cells in skin, Kupfer cells in the liver etc. Therefore, it should not be listed twice as both monocytes and macrophages.--KX36 17:47, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

removal of "diabetes link"

I removed the following from the article for a number of reasons:

In December 2006 researchers from Toronto Hospital for Sick Children showed in mice a link between Type 1 diabetes and both the Immune and Nervous systems. Lack of sensory (pain-related) nerves seemed to provoke an immune response in the insulin-producing cells.

Reasons for removal:

1. This is about one article about one aspect of one autoimmune disease (which are given only brief mention in this article, owing to the existence of the article autoimmunity where specifics are addressed), and it's inclusion here places undue weight on the findings.
2. The addition, as written, seems to imply that a link between the Immune system and T1D was established just last week, when in reality this connection was made many, many years ago (IIRC in the early 1970's). Really the authors show a link between a neuronal receptor and the development of diabetes, they don't really say (at least in the abstract) how the immune system is involved.

As a note: The actual Cell article seems to state a conclusion that is exactly opposite of what was added. Namely that "...Eliminating these neurons in diabetes-prone NOD mice prevents insulitis and diabetes, despite systemic persistence of pathogenic T cell pools." i.e. "Lack of sensory (pain-related) nerves seemed to prevent an immune response in the insulin-producing cells".--DO11.10 23:06, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Too narrow

This article is either too narrow or should acknowledge that it isn't all-encompassing. It doesn't mention that it is only talking about humans, and the second paragraph says that it defends us against bacteria and viruses, when in fact is also fights protists, fungi, and possibly animals (I'm not sure-- can we fight worms?) 71.252.43.16 00:08, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

One gets specifically an elevation in the eosinophil subtype of white blood cell with parasitic or worm infestations. Not sure it actual acheives much though David Ruben 01:45, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Chg section heading

It's not optimal to have a section heading called "Overview" - unencyclopedic - can that section be re-named, or the content be merged to section names more in line with those mentioned at WP:MEDMOS ? SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:15, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Section renamed. TimVickers 01:04, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Cellular barriers?

Not sure this last paragraph belongs under this subheading - maybe a separate subheading for immune evasion is needed??

The barriers established by innate immune system are brought into play at the earliest stages of infection and provide immediate defense against colonization. Many pathogens, however, have developed strategies that allow them to elude or escape from innate immune control. These evasion strategies include intracellular replication, such as in Salmonella or a protective capsule that prevents lysis by complement, as in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Ciar 01:54, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Lympho/Leukocytes and an extra!

I have never been known for there to be a difference between these too terms, and I have always used them interchangeably. This article is states that lymphocytes are only involved in specific immunity and leukocytes are only involved in innate immunity - but is this right? The article for leukocytes isn't clear about this either. I would all white blood cells to be leukocytes (by at least name sake only) - There two big classes for these cells is between the myeloid lineage and the lymphoid lineage - these are closer to the innate:specific separation, respectivly, but I wouldn't be so happy to accept a that separation as black and white. For instance there are dendritic cells in both lineages (these are potent members of specific immunity), natural killer cells are lympoid but are involvedwith innate immunity and mast cells are myeloid but are mediated specifically by IgE molecules (I think these would be categorized as specific immunity, its all semantics!). And one last thing! In the same section it states that only jawed vertebrae have a specific immune system - but there was an interesting article in Nature (sorry I don't have the citation) that showed that Lampreys have a special type on immune system that is not related to mammalian antibodies and such; this is something that might be interesting to note. So I hope this rambling helps, I'm gonna keep reading the article! Adenosine 06:14, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

The word lymphocyte refers to only the small white blood cells with the large round nucleus, and includes NK cells, T cells and B cells. The word leukocyte, however, includes all the white blood cells - all lymphocytes are leukocytes, but not all leukocytes are lymphocytes!

Oh yeah, and I agree with the inclusion of the agnathan VLR molecules (Key authors = Pancer and Cooper) although they haven't been functionally characterized yet - maybe just a wee mention?Ciar 07:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Immune system and tumors

This article is mainly focussing on the elimination of foreign pathogens, but doesn't really mention the other role the immune system plays, in keeping mutated/tumor cells at bay. Anyway of including this without it being too confusing? Ciar 22:18, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Although the subject could have a lengthy page of its own, here is a nice simple bit about tumor antigens that we could model without getting to complicated? What are your thoughts on including a bit about antigen receptor diversity/generation? There is a bit about this in the adaptive immune system article, but I don't know if it complicates things too much.--DO11.10 17:00, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I added a little info about the tumor regulation. Hoping some fresh eyes will take a look and get it to meet the standard of the rest of the article. Then, I thought about how to simply describe the complex processes of generating antigen receptor diversity. What about something along the lines.....

"During the maturation processes of T and B cells, they rearrange and randomly construct the genes for their antigen receptors so that each distinct cell generates its own unique receptor. This is how the populations of B and T cells possess a wide array of receptors capable of recognizing many different pathogens." .....do you think it makes any sense to anyone without an immunology background?? Ciar 02:51, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably not, it maybe that that concept is just too complex for this article, and I have tried out several "simple" ways of explaining it in my head, it always comes out sounding too "science geeky". The concept is covered in the adaptive article though.

I have done a bit of copy edit on the tumor section (sorry 'bout the edit conflict Tim). I have a question though. Did you mean to put:

"One example is an enzyme called tyrosinase that, when overexpressed, transforms certain skin cells (e.g. melanocytes) into tumors called melanomas. "

.... before the "altered self" bit, or am I reading something wrong?--DO11.10 03:40, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, the tyrosine example belongs with the overexpression/elavated expression part, not the "altered self" part. Thanks to you and Tim for taking a look and improving the section! Ciar 04:28, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

there....moved it to where it should be! Ciar 04:33, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Hormonal regulation of the immune system?

Hi all, the article is looking pretty good already — well done, all!

I'm pretty sure that the immune system responds to hormonal signals, and it'd be nice if there were some discussion of that in the article. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sick now and don't have access to a library anyway, so I can't help out too much. :( But I do recall that there can be direct effects on the immune system and indirect effects, e.g., by changing the relative microbial populations in the vaginal tract.

Good luck, Willow 22:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Cell markers

Okay, so I removed the term 'markers' from the phrase 'MHC markers' and replaced it with the conventional 'MHC molecules'. In cell biology, scientists use the term marker to describe a protein expressed on the surface of a cell that can be used to help distinguish that particular cell. This is because each different type of cell carries a distinct combination of cell surface proteins - these are often receptors, and often denoted with a CD prefix. Here's a common example; within the T cells, there are helper and cytotoxic subtypes. They function differently, and they can be distinguished from other lymphocytes and each other based on their cell surface molecules or markers. All T cells can be recognized by a marker called CD3 (part of the TCR complex) that is only expressed on T cells; all helper T cells have CD3 and CD4 markers, and all cytotoxic T cells have CD3 and CD8 markers. It can get more complex, but hopefully this explains things simply. MHC molecules are not typically used as markers. MHC class I molecules, for instance, tend to be expressed on all cell types so would be a poor candidate for cell recognition! Phew...hope this is of help!!! Ciar 04:23, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, you are right. I probably put that in there because I use MHC class I and II as "markers", (generally to determine/confirm DC maturation state, in conjunction with other, more specific "markers") and thus that is how I think of them. Thanks for your careful reading, good catch.--DO11.10 22:30, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

1. "Canadian scientists reverse diabetes in mice". CBC News. December 15, 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-17.

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