1. Review inflammation as one of the nonspecific reactions that help protect the body from invasion. Review the functions of the skin in this respect also.
2. Discuss the specificity of the immune response, with special emphasis on the lock-and-key mechanism of antigen-antibody interaction.
3. Continue exploring in more detail how the process becomes more specific as it goes on, so that later antibodies bind more tightly to the antigen than earlier ones. This is a part of the clonal selection that occurs, and the memory cells are able to react more selectively against the antigen if it should appear again. Discuss why you don't get measles or chicken pox more than once.
4. Discuss the use of recombinant DNA technology in the immune system and the possible production of vaccines for AIDS or the possible treatment of cancer with these new methods.
5. Discuss why it takes so long (sometimes years) to produce allergy relief through allergy shots and whether the shots must be continued when relief has occurred.
6. Emphasize the distinction between T and B cells.
Discuss the maturation process of T cells in the thymus and the
presence of a separate organ (the bursa of Fabricius) in birds
that has a similar function in maturation of the B cells there.
Athymic (nude) mice lack a thymus (and hair) and can be grafted
with practically any tissue (including chicken skinóthey
grow feathers!) without rejection because the pre-T cells have
no organ in which to mature.