The Immune System

Click & Learn

Student Worksheet (General Immunology)
INTRODUCTION
This worksheet will guide your exploration of The Immune System Click & Learn. After completing this
worksheet, you will have more knowledge about how the immune system works. You will be able to apply that
knowledge to everyday situations, such as getting a vaccine or having a fever.
PART 1: Introduction to Immune System Anatomy
Open The Immune System Click & Learn and go through the “Immune System Anatomy” section. This section
explores the main organs of the immune system.
1. The body has physical and chemical barriers to prevent pathogens from entering and infecting tissues.
a. Having a runny nose (and blowing your nose) protects your body from pathogens. How do you think that
works?
Runny nose helps to “flush out” the pathogens, mucus is dense preventing pathogens from going
deeper into our bodies, sneezing expells the pathogens
b. Why do cells that line the respiratory tract (including the nose and lungs) have hairs?

They help trap or move mucus, dust and pathogens, to keep the airways clean
2. The table below is an example “report” from a blood test. It shows the numbers of five different cell types in
a person’s blood. It also shows the expected ranges of numbers if the person is currently healthy. (These
values are just examples — other people’s might be different.)
Type of cell Number of cells Expected number of cells
(per microliter of blood) (per microliter of blood)
Neutrophils 4,165 1,560–6,450
Lymphocytes 1,050 950–3,070
(T cells, B cells, NK cells)
Eosinophils 142 30–480
Monocytes 519 260–810
Basophils 24 10–80

a. Where in the body are these types of cells produced?

Red bone marrow, and T-cells mature in the thymus
b. Are this person’s numbers of immune cells within their expected ranges? If not, which cell types are not
within their expected ranges?
Yes, however lymphocytes are on the lower end

3. Below is an example report for someone with leukemia, a cancer of immune cells. Cancer is caused by
uncontrolled cell division.
Type of cell Number of cells Expected number of cells
(per microliter of blood) (per microliter of blood)
Neutrophils 2,580 1,560–6,450
Lymphocytes 124 950–3,070
(T cells, B cells, NK cells)
Eosinophils 30 30–480
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The Immune System Student Worksheet (General Immunology)

Monocytes 2,280 260–810

Basophils 60 10–80

a. Which parts of this report might show that this person has leukemia? Be specific.
Monocytes, as leukemia divides cells and the monocyte level is extremely high, lymphocyte level is too low
meaning the deficency of immune responses
b. One treatment for leukemia is a bone marrow transplant. First, doctors use various methods to kill the
cancer cells in the person’s body. They can then replace these cells with stem cells from the bone
marrow of a person without leukemia. Why might a bone marrow transplant help a person with
leukemia?
A bone marrow transplant helps a leukemia patient’s bone marrow to produce a healthy amount of white blood cells

4. In very rare cases, a baby may be born without a thymus. How might this affect their immune system?
This would mean a severely weakened immune system because the T-cells have no space to mature
5. When a person is sick, a doctor may check the lymph nodes under their jaw and on each side of their neck.
Swollen lymph nodes can be a sign that the body is responding to an infection. Why do you think this is?
They swell because of an abnormal amount of pathogens being filtered through them, and immune cells passing through them
6. An athlete injured their spleen during a game. At the hospital, doctors removed the spleen and then
recommended that the athlete get all their vaccines, including the flu vaccine. Vaccines are medicines that
help protect the body from infections. Explain why getting vaccines would be particularly important for
someone without a spleen.
The spleen filters the blood and so helps the body fight infections, without the organ a body
cannot fight them so vaccines are needed to strengthen the immune system
7. Label two organs of the immune system on the figure below, and explain how they work together.

Bone marrow - produces white blood cells and T-cells

Thymus - matures the T-cells, which are produced by bine marrow

Figure 1. A diagram of the human body.

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The Immune System Student Worksheet (General Immunology)

PART 2: Immune Response

Continue to the “Immune Response” section of the Click & Learn, which explores how the immune system
responds to pathogens.
Read the “Overview,” then all the pages under the “Innate Immune Response” part of the “Timeline” tab. Stop
when you reach the “Adaptive Immune Response” page.
8. Determine whether each statement in the table below is true or false. Write your decision in the “True or
False?” column.
Statement True or False?
Innate immune cells can distinguish between specific types of viruses and
bacteria.
Innate immune cells can activate adaptive immune cells.
The innate immune response provides longer-lasting protection than the
adaptive response.
The innate immune response includes phagocytes and proteins.
9. Cytokines are often referred to as “messengers.” Provide two examples of “messages” that cytokines can
deliver, and how cells or the body respond to each message.

10. Examine the diagram below. It represents some of the steps (A to F) that can occur when a person is
infected.

A B C

D E F

Assign each letter in the diagram to a step in the table below. Some of the letters have already been filled in.
Steps Letter
Phagocytes with antigens on their surface activate T cells to start the adaptive immune
response.
Pathogens get through the body’s physical and chemical barriers.

Innate immune cells, which include phagocytes, respond to the pathogens.

Pieces of pathogens (antigens) attach to proteins on the surface of phagocytes. D

The adaptive immune response destroys the pathogens, and the infection ends.

The innate immune response destroys the pathogens, and the infection ends. C

Read all the pages under the “Adaptive Immune Response” part of the “Timeline” tab. Stop when you reach the
“Repeated Infections” page.
11. In two or three sentences, describe how the innate and adaptive immune responses interact.

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12. Fill in the table below with the following terms:

• humoral immune response
• fever
• inflammation
• cell-mediated immune response
• skin and mucous membranes

Immune response
Innate immune response Adaptive immune response

13. Hypogammaglobulinemia is a medical condition in which you have low levels of antibodies. People with
hypogammaglobulinemia tend to get a lot of infections. Why do you think this is?

14. Explain the difference between an antibody and an antigen.

15. What does it mean to say that the adaptive immune response has “memory”?

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PART 3: Vaccines
Read all the pages under the “Repeated Infections” part of the “Timeline” tab.
16. The figure below shows the antibody levels of an individual who was injected with a specific antigen. The
individual was injected with this antigen twice: once in Week 1 and again in Week 5.

Figure 2. Antibody levels over time for an individual injected twice with a specific antigen.

a. Which cells produce antibodies?

b. Between the first and second antigen injections, when are antibody levels the highest?

c. Describe two differences between the antibody levels after the first and second injections.

d. What might explain the differences you described?

Now read the “Vaccines” tab under the “Immune Response” section.
17. The table below lists the four main types of vaccines.
a. Complete the table with a short description of what the vaccine consists of.
Type of vaccine Description
Live-attenuated
Inactivated
Subunit/recombinant
Toxoid

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b. Explain why vaccines do not cause disease.

18. The graph below shows how many cases of measles were reported in the United States from 1921 to 2015.
Measles is an infectious disease caused by a virus.

Figure 3. The number of reported cases of measles in the United States from 1921 to 2015.

The measles vaccine has been available in the United States since 1963. What happened to the number of
reported measles cases at that time?

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