How An Immune Response Does Take Place?

When a foreign substance enters the body, such as the proteins from a microbe, that potential offender, called an antigen, can elicit a response from our immune defenses. The cells from the immune system conducting their normal surveillance will detect the antigen and then create and release immunoglobulins generally called antibodies to go and confront the antigen like policemen in hand to hand combat.

If enough of these antigens are present and enough antibodies are formed in the sense they hold hands together and a form a large molecules composed of variable number of antigens and antibodies. These are known as immune complexes. Under normal conditions, the antigen antibodies complexes are important in the recognition and elimination of such potentially dangerous structure as bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins, cellular debris, earlier cancerous cells, etc. they then immobilized the unwanted particles, and stimulate that body's scavenger cells or macrophages and their precursor relatives, the monocytes, to immobilized, swallow, take away and destroy the offenders.

Although immune complexes in proper amounts are initially helpful, particularly at the local tissue level where they become fixed, in excess quantities they overflow into the circulation and can then block other functions of the immune system and produce problems.

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