ABSTRACT
As described in Chapter 1, the innate immune response involves various types of cells such as granulocytes and macrophages, as well as many soluble factors such as complements and cytokines. These cellular and humoral factors play the role of first line defense to protect the body from infections. The innate immune response is usually inefficient due to its non-specificity and simplicity. However, upon contact with infectious agents, the immune system can slowly develop another response, i.e., the acquired immune response, which is adaptive to the specific challenge. Therefore, the acquired immune response is more effective in fighting selective infectious agents because of its specificity. Similar to the innate immune response, the acquired immune response can also be divided into cellular immunity and humoral immunity. In this chapter, two of the most important factors, i.e., antibodies and complement, involved in humoral immunity of acquired immune response will be discussed.
