Immune Response

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Description

Your immune system contains specialized white blood cells called lymphocytes that adapt to fight specific foreign invaders. Lymphocytes are derived from bone marrow cells and form two groups. One group migrates to the thymus gland and becomes T lymphocytes, or T cells. Hormones help the T cells mature, enabling them to attack foreign invaders and to provide cell-mediated immunity. (This immunity is deficient in persons with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.) The other group of lymphocytes is called B lymphocytes, or B cells. B cells mature and develop within the bone marrow and can recognize specific foreign invaders as they migrate through body fluids to the lymph nodes, spleen, and blood. B cells provide humoral immunity as they circulate through our fluids in search of specific foreign invaders to destroy. Humoral refers to the Latin word humor, which means body fluids.