Phagocytosis Help (1 Viewer)

[mmmm.]

If there was a question in the HSC on describing the process of Phagocytosis, how would you answer it? I am still confused about the entire phagocytosis process so if someone could give a summary/sample response on how to answer the question, it would be much appreciated.

Thankyou in advance

 

[jojosiwa123]

do u have an example of a question..?
basically a phagocyte cell (different types of WBC) engulfs the foreign particle and digests it to get rid of it.
eg: a macrophage locates and 'eats' (engulfs!) the foreign particle. then its trapped in a 'phagosome'. the phagosome then produces toxic chemicals to get rid of the pathogen itself (it does this by attacking its cell wall/membrane)
phagosome: it's basically a vesicle aka a kind of compartment, in more detail it does have cytoplasm enclosed by a lipid bilayer w hydrophilic (water loving) head and hydrophobic (water hating) tail.

your answer will develop on the question, in terms of how much detail you should look at practice questions and sample answers. the more marks in a question the more detail you'll have to add (eg when in the immune response does this happen, where, which pathogens), you would probably also need to know a bit about all the phagocytic white blood cells).

 

[mmmm.]

Don't really have an example but a made up one would be, explain the process of phagocytosis? But after reading your response, i have a rough idea of the process and have reviewed the textbook to make notes on the phagocytosis process. Btw do you mind also giving a summary of the steps in cell based and humoral immunity if possible?

 

[jojosiwa123]

cell based immunity: basically every cell that launches an immune response to an antigen. this would be phagocytes, cytotoxic T cells, cytokines (I can't remember any others?).
you'll need to get more detail on the two types of T cells cytotoxic (aka killer) and helper T cells.
Humoral: related to antibodies.
I can't really give a detailed summary- I think it's best if you download a set of notes from BoS or a quick google search rather than make notes at this stage tbh since hsc is very soon.