Immune Memory, Health, and Genetic Engineering Concepts
Immune Memory and Immunity
Immune memory is what allows the rapid recognition and response to infections. It is a unique and crucial role of the immune system. Immunity is the ability of a person to prevent infection or disease.
Antigens and Antibodies
Antigens: These are proteins or polysaccharides found on the surface of viruses and other pathogens.
Antibodies: These are proteins produced by lymphocytes, which belong to the immune system and act as a defense against viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other threats.
Artificial Immunity
Artificial immunity introduces low-virulence pathogens into the body to trigger an immune response without causing any disease.
Antibiotics
Antibiotics are molecules, whether of natural or synthetic origin, which aim to remove unwanted organisms. They are supplied in cases such as infections. Antibiotic resistance occurs in two ways: by mutation and gene exchange.
Health and Well-being
Health is dependent on a complete state of physical and mental well-being of a body. It depends on:
- Lifestyle (diet, physical activity, etc.)
- Our environment, which must be clean.
- Hereditary information, which depends on our genes.
Medical Diagnostic Tools
An electrocardiogram is the graph obtained that measures the heart’s electrical activity.
Blood pressure is the pressure exerted by blood against artery walls.
TAC is a medical diagnostic tool.
Ultrasound is another medical diagnostic tool.
Benefits of Physical Activity
Physical benefits of activity: It strengthens the heart, muscles, and bones. It increases the contribution of oxygen to the body, helps lose weight, and reduces stress, tension, and the amount of sugar and lipids in the blood, thus improving circulation.
Dangers of Tobacco
Dangers of tobacco: It produces health problems and causes premature death. It causes lung cancer.
Functional foods are foods that have a positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition.
Organ Donation and Bioethics
Spanish law states the following about organ donation:
- Establishment of encephalic death as a scientific definition, ethical and legal, for the concept of death of the individual.
- Respect for the will of the deceased on whether or not to donate their organs.
- The need for the diagnosis of death to be made by a medical team other than the one performing the transplant.
- Altruism of the donation and no marketing of the organs.
- Warranty of donor anonymity.
- Application of medical criteria for the distribution of available organs among patients awaiting a transplant.
Reproductive Biology Terms
Zygote: The union of egg and sperm produced within the female reproductive tract.
Blastocyst: A stage in early embryonic development.
Nesting: The function or stage where the placenta protects the embryo.
Endometrium: The layer covering the embryo in the uterus wall.
Stem Cells
What is a stem cell?
A stem cell is a cell characterized by its ability to multiply for long periods and give rise to new cells.
Types:
- Totipotent
- Pluripotent (These do not have the ability to create an individual, but they do have the capacity to create each of the cell types that comprise it.)
- Multipotent and oligopotent
DNA and RNA
Differences between DNA and RNA
DNA:
- It contains a sugar called deoxyribose, which is a pentose.
- Nitrogenous bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine.
- It is a double strand that is wound.
- It contains genetic material.
RNA:
- It contains a sugar called ribose.
- Its bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and uracil.
- It is a single thread and is responsible for making copies of DNA to carry to the ribosomes, where the union of amino acids begins.
DNA is the molecule that contains hereditary information.
Transgenic Organisms
Transgenic organisms are eukaryotic organisms, animal or plant type, that have been modified using genetic engineering.