Hey out of the following which are chemical response in the lines of defense.
- mucous membrane
- inflammation
- phagocytosis
- cell death
- fever
- lymph system
and what exactly is the difference. i would consider fever chemical simply because of the protein interlukin 1. but i saw that in the CSSA fever was physical and a chemical repsonse was production of histamines. (so would this mean that inflammation is chemical).
thanks!!
Hi!
Based on the syllabus, I think you might need to consider it more like
'physical vs chemical barriers' rather than
'physical vs chemical responses'.
Either way, for the first line of defence, I would consider the 'chemicals' response as more of a 'chemical barrier'.
This would include stomach acid, alkali conditions in the small intestine (pH levels) and enzymes in the mouth which can all destroy pathogens.
For the second line of defence, I would classify the actual inflammation (eg. dilation of blood vessels) as physical, but the release of histamines at the site as chemical, as the histamines are actually chemicals released from the damaged tissues to stimulate the physical response.
I would classify fever as physical, because the increase in temperature can cause some pathogens to be denatured/deactivated, however is is a physical, not a chemical response. I don't think you need to go as deep down as knowing about the protein interlukin 1.
In summary:
- mucous membrane - physical: This is a physical barrier that traps pathogens
- inflammation - physical: The process of inflammation is to increase blood flow to the site
↪ Releasing histamines, and the action of histamines, is chemical
- phagocytosis - physical: the phagocyte engulfs the pathogen / pathogenic cell
- cell death - physical: the actual apoptosis and necrosis processes are physical, but during these processes, they can release chemicals to signal for other phagocytic cells to come and 'clean up'
- fever - physical: increase in temperature can cause some pathogens to be denatured/deactivated,
- lymph system - physical and chemical in the second line of defence: Pathogens are drained to the lymph nodes via the lymph fluids (physical) where they are killed/neutralised by immune cells (chemical)
I hope this is somewhat helpful!
Also just FYI, in future I would probably post questions like this in the Biology Questions Thread