Working of Specific Acquired Immunity
Primary lymphoid organs, as you already know, are thymus and bone marrow. Secondary organs are lymph nodes, spleen and lymphoid tissue. When Ag microorganisms enter the body, one of the secondary lymphoid organs traps it and mounts an immune response. An exact organ involved depends at the site of entry. Let us then get to know what are the sites of entry.
1) Tissue - traps in draining lymph node
2) Blood stream -trapped in spleen
3) Mucosal surface -- reponses in mucosal associated lymphoid tissue
Irrespective of the above mentioned situation, the agent is trapped by phagocytic cells which degrade it, coat their surface with some chemical fragment derived from the agent. These fragments help in recognizing the phagocyte by immuno competent cells which finally leads to the production of effectors. Effectors in humoral immunity are specific Ab. In CMI, the effectors are lymphokinesis and cytotoxic lymphocytes.
Let us now get to know how the two acquired immunity system works. We start with AMIS.