ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the resemblance between physicochemical properties of such materials and products from microbial organisms prompts a diversified response from the immune system. A critical property of devices applied in the human body is their compatibility with human tissues. Such “biocompatibility” can be achieved in a number of ways that depends on the chemical composition, surface topology, and size. The area of nanomedicine is taking advantage of strategies for controlling these characteristics with the aim of improving the function of medical devices and pharmacological treatments. Adaptive immunity comprises complex cellular mechanisms that permit a highly diversified immune response to microbial or other stimulating challenges and includes a recall response upon repeated exposure. Antibodies are able to neutralize functions of infectious microbial organisms by simple binding to key molecules of these organisms. Integrins are also important in both phagocytosis and cellular signaling.
