Question Video: Recalling the Immune Cells That Secrete Antibodies | Nagwa Question Video: Recalling the Immune Cells That Secrete Antibodies | Nagwa

Question Video: Recalling the Immune Cells That Secrete Antibodies Biology • Third Year of Secondary School

What type of immune cells secrete antibodies?

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Video Transcript

What type of immune cells secrete antibodies? (A) Memory cells, (B) T-helper cells, (C) macrophages, (D) neutrophils, or (E) plasma cells.

Antibodies, also called immunoglobulins, are globular proteins which help the body to fight against a pathogenic infection. They do that by binding to a specific complementary antigen.

But how are antibodies produced? Antibodies are involved in the specific immune response. This immune response is often divided into humoral and cell-mediated immunity. Humoral immunity relies on the action of B cells and is most effective against extracellular pathogens. Cell-mediated immunity on the other hand relies on the action of cytotoxic T cells and is effective against intracellular pathogens. Both types of specific immunity work simultaneously to fight infections.

Antibodies belong to the humoral immunity, so let’s go through the processes of this immunity type. As mentioned, humoral immunity relies on the action of B cells. Immature B cells have antibody receptors, also called B receptors. These B cell receptors are antibodies attached to the cell membrane of B cells. When the B cell receptor binds with a complementary antigen, the B cell becomes activated itself. Note that B cells may also require additional signaling from helper T cells to become activated.

Once the B cells are activated, they begin to proliferate. This creates a population of B cells that all possess B cell receptors that recognize a particular antigen. The mature activated B cells then differentiate into one of two cell types. Some become memory B cells, which live for a long time in the immune system, ready to rapidly activate if stimulated by the same antigen in the future. The majority differentiate into plasma cells. Plasma cells are B lymphocytes that, instead of surface-bound antibody receptors, generate large quantities of soluble antibodies that they secrete into the bloodstream and other body fluids.

This means that the type of immune cells that secrete antibodies is given by answer choice (E), plasma cells.

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