Purchase Solution

Immune response to injury & viral infection/flu vaccination

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

1) Describe how the mammalian immune system responds to (i) a laceration, such as an injury from falling on a barbed-wire fence, and (ii) a viral infection.

2) Explain how the flu vaccination works and why it has a fairly low success rate.

Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary

This solution provides information on the mammalian immune response to a laceration or injury and viral infection. It then discusses the working of flu vaccine and reason behind its low success rate.

Solution Preview

1) Describe how the mammalian immune system responds to (i) a laceration, such as an injury from falling on a barbed-wire fence, and (ii) a viral infection.

The vertebrate (or say mammalian) immune system plays a major role in disease prevention. The immune response varies with the variation in the type of infecting organism. There is a difference in immune response during a laceration, a viral infection, a bacterial infection and so on.

i.) Immune response to a laceration, such as an injury from falling on a barbed-wire fence:

A laceration is a wound that occurs when skin, tissue, and/or muscle is torn or cut open. When there is a laceration or injury in any body part, inflammation comes into play. And inflammation is an immune response. The injury soon becomes red, swollen, and warm. These signs are evidence of the inflammatory response. With an injury, there is also an entry of bacteria inside the body as they get a cut to enter into the body. The immune system needs to tackle with these invading organisms also. Injured tissues send out signals to immune system cells, which quickly migrate to the injured area. These immune cells perform different functions. Some destroy bacteria by phagocytosis. Others release enzymes that kill the bacteria. Still other cells release a substance called histamine. Histamine causes blood vessels to dilate (become ...

Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Bacterial Genetics

This quiz test your knowledge of the genetics of bacteria.

Vision and Oculomotor Control

This quiz will test the student's knowledge of the neural underpinnings of the visual system and its central pathways.

Pregnancy Knowledge

How much do you know about being pregnant? Test your Pregnancy IQ with this quiz!

Cellular Respiration

This quiz is a review for cellular respiration.

Light and Sight Vocabulary

This quiz introduces basic definitions of vocabulary related to light and how human eyes. This information is important for an understanding of sight.

View More Free Quizzes
Related BrainMass Solutions

  • new flu viruses

    However, if virus is new, in that case immune system takes some time to produce appropriate lymphocytes. By the time it is produced our dody suffers form viral infection which is manifested in different forms (cold, fever, cough etc).

  • Viral Pathogen: HIV and AIDS

    The initial infection with HIV causes short flu like symptoms, but sometime gives no symptoms. Stage 2: The second stage last between 2 to 15 years. It is the period between infection and the onset of clinical signs.

  • Is Venomousness Determined by a Sex-Linked Trait?

    This fever helps to fight the infection by slowing down the rate of viral reproduction. This immune response continues until the viruses are eliminated from the body.

  • Flu and Immunization

    There can be other factors involved as the time interval between the vaccine and infection, immunogenic potency of the vaccine strains and other acute viral and non-viral respiratory infections (Millot et al. 2002).

  • Immunology

    The passive administration of antibody (in antisera) against certain viruses (eg, hepatitis B) can be useful during the incubation period to limit viral multiplication, eg, after a needlestick injury to someone who has not been vaccinated.

  • How AIDS Affects Health

    Upon infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), most people demonstrate little or no symptoms at all. For those who do, early HIV infection is comparable to a flu-like illness which typically appears 2-4 months after infection.

  • Immunity & Infectious Diseases

    The reason they are released is to cause vasodilatation, emigration of neutrophils, chemotaxis and increased vascular permeability in response to injury.

  • Vaccines for Mild Diseases and, Cytoltic and Antibody Responses

    Once the infection is established cell-mediated immune mechanisms are the most important host defense. Dead viral proteins tend to induce primarily an antibody response (see below).

  • Microbes that are difficult to control

    When antibiotics are used against colds, flu and other viral infections, the antibiotics do not respond to these infection because cold and flu are viral infections.

View More Related Solutions