BIO 401. IMMUNOBIOLOGY. FALL 2005 .
REVIEW SHEET FOR FIRST EXAM  (This is only an study aid to help you prepare for the exam!!!)

CHAPTER 1. Overview of the immune system.
1.  Be familiar with different scientists and their contributions to the field of immunology (only those
    covered in class).
2. Be familiar with the historical contributions that allowed the discovery of humoral and cellular
    immunities.
3. Be able to differentiate between innate and acquired immunity.
4. Be able to explain or elaborate on the mechanism of action of the following nonspecific defense
    mechanisms: unbroken skin, mucous membranes, one way flow of fluid, localized chemical
    environment (i.e. on the skin or in the stomach), peristaltic action of the intestine, desquamation of
    the surface cells on certain tissue, self cleaning properties of mucous membranes, nasal hair, and
    normal flora (note that this single question covers a large amount of material). Are any of these
    defense mechanisms inducible or are they entirely constitutive?
5. Be familiar with examples from physiologic barriers.
6. The phagocytic system is said to be our second line of defense against pathogens. Be familiar
    with the different steps in the process of phagocytosis. Be familiar with the different types of
    macrophages (fixed or wandering)..
7. Describe the general physiological events which represent the inflammatory response.
8. Describe in conceptual terms the protective effects of the inflammatory response. What is the
    outcome?
9. Be familiar with the characteristics of acquired or specific immunity.
10. In general terms, what is the role of B and T lymphocytes in the humoral immune response?
    What is a plasma cell? Why do we need the intervention of CD4 T helper cells in an antibody
    response (what happens when T helper cells are not involved in an antibody response?)?
11. In the presentation of antigen to initiate an immune response, what is the feature of the antigen
    that selects whether CD4 helper or CD8 cytotoxic cells are activated?
12. What is the role MHC in T cell activation? Be familiar with MHC molecules.
13. What is an APC? Why they are important during acquired or specific immunity?
14. Be prepared to describe the process by which an antibody immune response is initiated up
    through the production of plasma cells releasing antibody.
15. What are epitopes? How epitopes are recognized by B or T cells?
16. What are the cell membrane molecules involved in antigen recognition by T and B cells?
17. Make sure you understand what is the MHC complex? What role it plays during antigen
    presentation?  
18. What do we mean by the clonal selection theory in the process of generating an immune
     response. Explain this event.
19. What is the role of MHC-I and MHC-II in antigen recognition by T cells? What cells they
    interact with? What antigens they interact with? etc.
20. Explain the differences between primary and secondary lymphoid organs with respect to
    lymphocytes.
21. Explain the differences between the "primary" and the "secondary" (or anamnestic) immune
    responses. What aspects of the secondary immune response are particularly important when we
    give booster shots of a vaccine? Why do we usually believe that when we can mount a secondary
    immune response to a pathogen, we are immune to that pathogen?
22. Explain the role of memory "B" cells and CD4 lymphocytes in the secondary immune response.
    Do we make a secondary cell-mediated immune response?
23. Explain what happens when the immune system goes dysfunctional.
 

CHAPTER 2. Cells of the immune system
1. Be able to describe the origin of the leukocytes, lymphocytes, and RBCs found in the blood.
2. What is the HSC? What progenitors are produced from this cells? What are stromal cells? What
    is the role of stromal cells during T and B cell development?
3. Describe apoptosis, genes promoting or preventing apoptosis, and the difference between
    apoptosis and necrosis. Why is apoptosis important in hematopoiesis?
4. Among the lymphoid cells, be able to describe unique surface markers (CD molecules) for B, T
    and NK cells.
5. How can NK cells achieve ADCC? What are the NK1-T cells?
6. Be able to describe the process of phagocytosis and the mediators of antimicrobial and cytotoxic
    activity (oxygen-independent and oxygen-dependent).
7. Be able to provide example of fixed and wandering macrophages.
8. Provide the function(s) of macrophages. (We saw 3 in class)
9. Be able to identify granulocytes and provide their main biological function.
10. Be able to provide the role of dendritic cells as well as their types (4).
11. Be able to provide the main differences between primary and secondary lymphoid organs.
12. Be able to identify the location of immune cells in the spleen and lymph nodes.
13. Know about the lymphatic system. Why is it important? How the lymphatic system and lymph
    nodes come together?
14. What is the main role played by the spleen?
15. Provide one example of a MALT. What type of cell is involved in antigen uptake in the
    intestines?

CHAPTER 3. Antigens.
1. What are the definitions of: antigens, epitopes, immunogens and antibodies.
2. What are the differences between immunogenicity and antigenicity? How can you explain that
    haptens in order to induce an immune response need to be linked to a carrier protein.
3. Be prepared to explain for example, why one would expect that the humoral immune response to
    the GP120 HIV virus receptor would be expected to elicit antibodies with many different
    specificities (for different antigenic determinants). In this respect, know what is meant by a
    polyclonal antibody response.
4. Why antigens need to be greater than 5,000 molecular weight in order to efficiently stimulate an
    immune response. Think about why that might be so. Overall, you need to know the factors that
    contribute to the immunogenicity of an antigen.
5. What are adjuvants? What are the most commonly used adjuvants? How they work?
6. For what sorts of antigens do we mount the strongest and the weakest immune responses?
7. You need to be familiar with how antigens are seen by T and B cells? (Table 3.4)
8. What do we mean by sequential or conformational epitopes? (Table 3.5)
9. What are Pattern-recognition receptors? Be able to provide examples as well as their ligands.

CHAPTER 4. Immunoglobulins: Structure and Function.
1. Be able to describe and draw the basic structure of an antibody molecule indicating: antigen
    binding sites, biological activity site, constant domains, variable domains, hinge regions, intra- and
    extra-chain disulfide bonds, complement binding site, carboxy and amino ends, etc.
2. What are complementary-determining regions (CDRs)?
3. Be familiar with the roles of the different parts of the antibody molecule (ex. antigen binding)
4. Be able to describe experiments used to demonstrate antibody structure: pepsin, papain, papain
    and  mercaptoethanol. What are the end products?
5. Be able to know the types of light and heavy chains?
6. You need to know what is an imunoglobulin fold.  How many domains are present in each class
    of antibody? What is the difference between IgG and IgE?
7. Be able to know what makes a molecule part of the immunoglobulin superfamily. Provide
    examples.
7. Be able to identify within the variable regions the CDRs. How many? Why are they important?
8. What are the roles of the CH1 and the CL domains?
9. Be able to describe the antibody-mediated effector functions (opsonization, etc).
10. This is a must: the biological activities of immunoglobulin classes (opsonization, etc).
11. Know the main 2-3 properties of each antibody type (fixes complement, crosses placenta, etc.)
12. How IgA acquires its secretory component?
13. Know the difference between isotype and allotype.
14. Be able to describe the structure and properties of the “B cell receptor”.
15. Be able to outline the process of generating monoclonal antibodies. What are the critical steps?
    What are the selection strategies?