Lexic.us

Definition of Acquired immunity

1. Noun. Immunity to a particular disease that is not innate but has been acquired during life; immunity can be acquired by the development of antibodies after an attack of an infectious disease or by a pregnant mother passing antibodies through the placenta to a fetus or by vaccination.

Medical Definition of Acquired immunity

1. A form of cellular defense which identifies certain foreign substances (antigens) as harmful to the body. For this reason, the body can acquire resistance to a particular foreign agent. These foreign agents are then attacked by sensitised T lymphocytes (cellular immunity). White blood cells, plasma cells, B lymphocytes and other specialised immune system cells act in concert with T lymphocytes to produce antibodies (humoral immunity) that attach to the antigen directing T-cells to attack. Antibodies also stimulate the release of special chemical mediators in the blood (for example complement, interferon) that further enhance antigen destruction. (13 Nov 1997)

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Lexicographical Neighbors of Acquired Immunity

Literary usage of Acquired immunity

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Immunity in Infective Diseases by Elie Metchnikoff (1907)
"The acquired immunity against vibrios. — Extracellular destruction of the cholera vibrio. ... acquired immunity against the bacteria of typhoid fever and ..."

2. A Text-book of General Bacteriology by Edwin Oakes Jordan (1918)
"The problems of natural individual immunity are closely connected in some ways with those of acquired immunity. acquired immunity acquired immunity may be ..."

3. A Practical Text-book of Infection, Immunity, and Specific Therapy: With by John Albert Kolmer (1915)
"Passive acquired immunity.—.As the name indicates, this is a form of immunity that depends upon defensive factors not originating in the person or animal ..."

4. Microbiology: A Text-book of Microörganisms, General and Applied by Charles E. Marshall (1921)
"He conceived that in acquired immunity to toxins these cells develop as the result of an infection or artificial injection of microorganisms, an increased ..."

5. Infection and Immunity: With Special Reference to the Prevention of by George Miller Sternberg (1903)
"... CHAPTER XII acquired immunity IT is well known that in certain infectious diseases a single attack protects the individual from subsequent attacks. ..."

6. Infection, Immunity and Serum Therapy: In Relation to the Infectious by Howard Taylor Ricketts (1908)
"acquired immunity. Immunity which is acquired as the result of infection is said to have been acquired naturally, a very different thing from natural ..."

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