What is present in a vaccine to cause white blood cells to respond in this way?

Answer 1

A vaccination introduces killed/weakened pathogens or an antigen to the body. An antigen is anything that triggers an immune system response (generally a surface protein on a pathogen). In order to understand why this helps it is crucial to understand how the immune system operates:

The body has two types of immunity "Cell-mediated" and "Humoral Immunity." Cell-mediated immunity is essentially a mob of Killer T Cells and a few others going around attacking pathogens and infected body cells. But the Humoral Response is the one we are concerned with for your question...

Humoral Immunity is mediated by the secretion of antibodies from B lymphocytes. There are two main types of B lymphocytes, Memory Cells and and Plasma B Cells. Memory cells are randomly generated and stored mainly in lymph nodes. A human body which has never been exposed to a disease will have ONE of each Memory Cell 'hidden' in a lymph node. Each Memory Cell applies to ONE pathogen. The Memory Cell essentially tells other cells to do their jobs to fight an infection, not much will get done without it. Once a Memory Cell has been activated, it will continue to proliferate forever, even after the pathogen it fights is gone.

In a very introductory level synopsis, if a pathogen breaks through the primary and secondary defenses of the body and it comes time for the real beats (the humoral response) to activate a very inefficient and time consuming process occurs in which an antigen presenting cell engulfs the pathogen and then seeks the specific Memory Cell in the lymphatic system. Now bear in mind (if the body ha snot yet been exposed to the disease) the cell is searching for ONE Memory Cell among 10 trillion body cells! With some sicknesses, it takes too long to find the Memory Cell and the patient could be terminal before it is found and the Humoral Response triggered.

Now the old adage is "prevention is worth a pund of cure," and if it worked for my 7th grade English teacher it works for microbiology as well. The ultimate goal of a vaccination is to expose the body to severely weakened pathogens or purified anitgens, neither of which are likely to cause an adverse reaction. By doing this, a humoral response is triggered and the body seeks the proper Memory Cell, this cell then proliferates throughout the course of the patient's life and will be found much more quickly should it be needed to fight a real infection.

Answer 2

when a vaccine is introduced into the body, your immune system responds as if

the vaccine is an intruder.it sends WBC's in the form of Macrophages & Phagocytes to attack & destroy the invader. the WBC's ingest the foreign invaders, and they release the remains of the invader(think of a bowel movement in Humans). those remains are called Antibodies. the antibodies will protect you if you are ever exposed to that particular invader again.

Answer 3

White blood cells function to destroy antigens

Answer 4

the vaccine gives fake or dead bacteria so the memory cells can remember it an fight it easily when the real disease comes without causing any harm in your body.

Answer 5

It is either the disease you are trying to get rid of in a weakened form or something very similar which makes the body create the necessary antibodies.