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The Host Defense / Immune system can be differentiated in the systemic (nonmucosal) immune system and the common mucosal immune system
Elements of the adaptive immunity, including maternal antibodies and mucosal antibody responses, play crucial roles in protecting the hosts from pathogens in addition to promoting colonization of symbiotic bacteria at mucosal surfaces
Guzman-Bautista et al. 2020 Current Opinion Immunology 66: 82-89
Obesity and metabolic disease can influence the immune system
The immune system is highly regulated by a series of stimulatory and inhibitory pathways that are crucial to maintain a healthy and balanced system
The human immune system exhibits significant variability between individuals, yet it remains relatively stable over time within a single person.
While both heritable and non-heritable factors contribute to the range of variation in the immune system, it is primarily the non-heritable influences - such as symbiotic and pathogenic microbes - that account for most of the differences observed.
Host-defense factors are enteric alfa-defensins, select lectins, mucins, and secretory immunoglobulin A – that have the capacity to bind microbes and thereby contribute to barrier function in the human gut.
The gut microbiota plays an important role in educating and modulating the host immune system
Mazmanian et al. 2005
Schirmer et al. 2016
A key feature of the immune system is its ability of self-nonself discrimination, which is required for eliminating invading pathogenic microbes while maintaining immunological tolerance to self-antigen
see also:
Immunoregulation / Immune System