Question

1. The immune response requires a team effort. How do the specific and non-specific defenses work together?

Answer 1

A non-specific immune response (also called immunity) is antigen-independent while a specific immune response is antigen-dependent. The examples of the non-specific immunity are fever, phagocytosis by macrophages, skin and mucus.  The example of the specific immune response is cytotoxic T-cells able to recognize antigens on infected cells and kill them before the infection could spread. So, the first line of defence is the non-specific immune response. However, if pathogens pass that line of defence, the specific immune response activates.