What is a “nonspecific line of defense” in the immune system?
“Nonspecific” would mean a more generalized approach to an incoming organism that’s going to cause disease. It would be so generalized that you wouldn’t have to know exactly what that organism is; you just need to know something strange going on in the body. If a tissue is damaged, what happens? When the tissue is damaged, it can die by a variety of processes. The most common that we used to know about is when it just bursts and dies because it’s been hit or has had trauma. But there are other ways. It can secrete various proteins as it’s dying, and that will induce cells nearby to undergo what we call “program cell death,” or a term called “apoptosis.” That is a natural process. It says, “Things aren’t going well here and we want to get out of here,” and they die. That only increases the amount of cells that are affected by a trauma or an inflammatory something that occurs in the body. So what are the most important elements-some of the basic elements if tissue becomes inflamed? What
