Outline of immunology
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to immunology:
![]() |
Immunology |
---|
Immunology is the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms.[1] It deals with the physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and disease; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders (autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivities, immune deficiency, transplant rejection); the physical, chemical and physiological characteristics of the components of the immune system in vitro, in situ, and in vivo.
Branches of immunology
- Classical immunology
- Clinical immunology
- Computational immunology
- Diagnostic immunology
- Evolutionary immunology
- Systems immunology
- Immunomics
- Immunoproteomics
- Immunophysics
- Immunochemistry
- Ecoimmunology
- Immunopathology
- Nutritional immunology
- Psychoneuroimmunology
- Reproductive immunology
- Circadian immunology
- Immunotoxicology
- Palaeoimmunology
- Tissue-based immunology
- Testicular immunology - Testes
- Immunodermatology - Skin
- Intravascular immunology - Blood
- Osteoimmunology - Bone
- Mucosal immunology - Mucosal surfaces
- Neuroimmunology - Neuroimmune system in the Central nervous system
- Ocularimmunology - Ocular immune system in the Eye
- Cancer immunology/Immunooncology - Tumors
General immunological concepts
- Immunity against:
- Central tolerance
- Peripheral tolerance
- Clonal anergy
- Clonal deletion
- Tolerance in pregnancy
- Immunodeficiency
-
- Junctional diversity
- Immunoglobulin class switching
- Allelic exclusion
- Polyclonal response
Components of the immune system
Adaptive immune system
-
-
- Kinds of antibodies
- Monoclonal antibodies
- Polyclonal antibodies
- Autoantibody
- Microantibody
- Neutralizing antibody
- Classification
- Functions
- Antibody opsonization
- Neutralisation
- Regions
-
Innate immune system
-
- Classical complement pathway
- Mannan-binding lectin pathway
- Alternate complement pathway
- Complement membrane attack complex
- Surface barriers – Physical or chemical barriers that prevent infection (i.e. skin, tears, mucus, saliva, Gastric acid, etc.)
- Positive
- Alpha 1-antichymotrypsin
- Alpha 1-antitrypsin
- Alpha 2-macroglobulin
- C-reactive protein
- Ceruloplasmin
- C3
- Ferritin
- Fibrin
- Haptoglobin
- Hemopexin
- Orosomucoid
- Negative
}}
Organs of the immune system
Lymphatic System
Primary Lymphoid Organs
Primary Lymphoid Organs
- Thymus - Site of T Cell maturation
- Bone Marrow - Site of Haematopoiesis and B Cell maturation
Secondary Lymphoid Organs
Secondary Lymphoid Organs
- Spleen
- White Pulp
- Red Pulp
- Marginal zone
- Lymph Nodes
- Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue
- Spleen
Cells of the immune system
White blood cells
Myeloid Cells
- Granulocytes
- Neutrophils
- Eosinophils
- Basophils
- Mast cells
- Monocytes
- Macrophages
- Histiocytes (Tissue resident macrophages)
- Adipose tissue macrophages
- Kupffer cell - Liver
- Alveolar macrophage (Dust cell) - Lung
- Langerhans cell - Skin
- Dermal macrophage - Dermis
- Microglia - CNS
- Perivascular macrophage
- Meningeal macrophage - Meninges
- Hofbauer cell - Placenta
- Osteoclasts - Bone
- Bone marrow macrophage - Bone marrow
- Marginal zone macrophage - Spleen
- Metallophilic macrophage - Spleen
- Red pulp macrophage - Splenic red pulp
- Tingible body macrophage (White pulp macrophage) - Splenic white pulp
- Foreign-body giant cell
- Langhans giant cell
- Touton giant cells
- Epithelioid cells
- Bone marrow-derived macrophages - Generated in vitro
- Dendritic Cells
- Conventional Dendritic Cells
- Plasmacytoid dendritic cells
- Granulocytes
Lymphoid Cells
Lymphoid cells
- B cells
- Plasma B cells
- Memory B cells
- B-1 cells
- B-2 cells (the conventional B cells most texts refer to)
- Marginal-zone B cells
- Follicular B cells
- T cells
- Naive T cells
- Helper T cells - Commonly termed CD4+ T cells
- Th1 cells
- Th2 cells
- Th3 cells
- Th17 cells
- TFH cells - Follicular helper T cells
- Cytotoxic T cells - Commonly termed CD8+ T cells
- Memory T cells
- Regulatory T cells
- Natural Killer T cells (NKT cells)
- γδ T cells
- Mucosal associated invariant T cells
- Innate lymphoid cells (ILC)
- Group 1 ILC
- Natural killer cells (NK cells)
- Group 2 ILC
- Group 3 ILC
- Lymphoid Tissue inducer cells (LTi cells)
- Group 1 ILC
- B cells
Others
- (Non-hematopoietic cells with immune functions)
- Lymph node stromal cells
- Follicular dendritic cells
- Epithelial cells
- Pericytes
- Microfold cells (M cells)
Hematopoiesis
-
-
- T cell development
- B cell development
- Pre-pro-B cell
- Early pro-B cell
- Late pro-B cell
- Large pre-B cell
- Small pre-B cell
- Immature B cell
- Common myeloid progenitor (CFU-GEMM)
- Granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (CFU-GM)
-
- Monoblast (CFU-M)
- CFU-DL - Dendritic cell / Langerhans cell precursor
- CFU-Baso (Basophil precursor)
- CFU-Eos (Eosinophil precursor)
- Megakaryocyte-erythroid progenitor cell (MEP)
-
- Proerythroblast
- Normoblast
- Reticulocyte
- Mast cell precursors
-
Molecules of the Immune System
Immune receptors
Antigen receptors
-
- Antigen receptor - B cell receptor (BCR)
- Subunits- Immunoglobulin heavy chain / Immunoglobulin light chain
- Co-receptors
- Accessory molecule (CD79)
Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs)
- Membrane-bound PRRs
- Toll-like receptors (TLRs)
-
- Group 1 CLRs - Mannose receptors
-
- Group 2 CLRs - Asialoglycoprotein receptor family
- Dectin 1 subfamily
- DCIR subfamily
-
- Class A - Trimers
-
- Class B - Two transmembrane domains
- Others
- Formyl peptide receptors (FPRs)
- Cytoplasmic PRRs
- NOD-like receptors (NLRs)
- NLRA (A for acidic transactivating domain)
- NLRB (B for BIR, or Inhibitor of apoptosis domain)
- NLRC (C for CARD domain)
- NLRP (P for Pyrin domain)
- NLRX
- RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs) - Intracellular sensors of viral replication by direct interaction with dsRNA
- Secreted PRRs
- Complement system (see complement proteins section)
- Collectins
- Mannan-binding lectin (MBL)
- Surfactant protein A (SP-A)
- Surfactant protein D (SP-D)
- CL-L1
- CL-P1
- CL-K1
Complement receptors
- CR1 (CD35)
- CR2 (CD21)
- CR3 - Heterodimer: CD11b / CD18
- CR4 - Heterodimer: CD11c / CD18
- CRIg (Complement receptor of the immunoglobulin family)
- Anaphylatoxin receptors
- C3a receptor
- C5a receptor (CD88)
- C5AR2
Fc receptors
- Fc-gamma receptors (FcγR)
- Fc-alpha receptors (FcαR)
- Fc-epsilon receptors (FcεR)
- Secreted Fc receptors
- Polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (poly-Ig)
Cytokine receptors
- Type I cytokine receptors (Hemopoietin receptors) - Share extracellular WSXWS motif, Grouped by common receptor subunits
- Common gamma chain (γ-chain, CD132)
- Common beta chain (β-chain, CD131)
- Common gp130 subunit (gp130, CD130)
- IL12 receptor beta 1 subunit (IL12RB1)
- IL12R - Heterodimer: IL12RB1 / IL12RB2
- IL23R - Heterodimer: IL23RA / IL12RB1
- Others
- Type II cytokine receptor - Lack WSXWS motif
- Interferon receptors
- Interleukin receptors
- Immunoglobulin superfamily (Some members)
-
- IL1R type 1 (CD121a)
- IL1R type 2 (CD121b)
- IL1R accessory protein (IL1RAP)
- IL1RL1 (IL33R, ST2)
- IL17 family
- Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family - Trimeric cytokine receptors
|
|
|
|
|
- Chemokine receptors - 7-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors
- CC chemokine receptors (CCRs)
- CXC chemokine receptors (CXCRs)
Natural killer cell receptors
Natural killer cell receptors
- Killer activation receptors (KARs)
- Natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs)
- Natural killer group 2 receptors (NKG2s)
- Activating KIRs
- Killer inhibitory receptors (KIRs)
- Two domains, long cytoplasmic tail
- Two domains, short cytoplasmic tail
- Three domains, long cytoplasmic tail
- Three domains, short cytoplasmic tail
- KIR3DS1
Others
- Leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptors (LILRs)
- LILR subfamily A
- LILR subfamily B
Antibodies
- Immunoglobulin A (IgA)
- Immunoglobulin D (IgD)
- Immunoglobulin E (IgE)
- Immunoglobulin G (IgG)
- Immunoglobulin M (IgM)
Cytokines
- CC chemokines
|
|
|
|
|
- CXC chemokines
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Tumor necrosis factors
|
|
|
|
|
- Colony stimulating factors
MHCs
Complement proteins
- Early stage (divided by pathway)
-
- Mannan-binding lectin pathway
- Middle stage
- C3 - C3a / C3b / iC3b
- C5 - C5a
- C3-convertase
- C5-convertase
- Late stage
- Complement pathway inhibitors
- C1-inhibitor - Classical, Lectin, Alternate
- Decay-accelerating factor (CD59) - Classical, Lectin, Alternate
- Factor I - Classical, Lectin, Alternate
- C4BP - Classical, Lectin
- Factor H - Alternate
Antimicrobial peptides
Transcription factors
Cell adhesion molecules (CAMs)
Cell adhesion molecules
- Alpha subunits
- A1
- A2
- A3
- A4
- A5
- A6
- A7
- A8
- A9
- A10
- A11
- AD
- AE
- AL (CD11a)
- AM (CD11b)
- AV
- AX (CD11c)
- Beta subunits
- Dimers
- Cytoadhesin receptor
- Integrin alpha6beta4
- Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa - Heterodimer: ITGA2B / ITGB3
- Fibrinogen receptor
- Macrophage-1 antigen (CR3) - Heterodimer: CD11b / CD18
- Fibronectin receptor:
- Integrin alpha2beta1
- Integrin alpha4beta1
- Integrin alpha5beta1
- Leukocyte-adhesion receptor:
- LFA-1 - Heterodimer: CD11a / CD18
- Macrophage-1 antigen (CR3) - Heterodimer: CD11b / CD18
- Integrin alphaXbeta2 (CR4) - Heterodimer: CD11c / CD18
- Very late antigen receptor:
- Integrin alpha1beta1
- Integrin alpha2beta1
- Integrin alpha3beta1
- VLA-4 - Heterodimer: CD49d / CD29
- Alpha-5 beta-1
- Integrin alpha6beta1
- Vitronectin receptor:
- Immunoglobulin superfamily CAMs
- SynCAMs - Synaptic cell adhesion molecules
- NCAMs - Neural cell adhesion molecules
- Intercellular adhesion molecules (ICAMs)
- L1-CAM
- CHL1
- Neurofascin
- NrCAM
- SIGLEC family - Sialic acid binding lectins
- CTX family
- CTX
- Junctional adhesion molecule
- BT-IGSF
- CAR
- VSIG
- ESAM
- CD2 family
- Others
Immune system disorders
Hypersensitivity and Allergy
-
- Foreign (Allergen)
- Atopic eczema
- Allergic urticaria
- Allergic rhinitis (Hay fever)
- Allergic asthma
- Anaphylaxis
- Food allergy
- Penicillin allergy
- Type 2 hypersensitivity / Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC)
- Foreign
- Pernicious anemia
- Hemolytic disease of the newborn
- Autoimmune
-
- Autoimmune hemolytic anemia
- Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
- Bullous pemphigoid
- Pemphigus vulgaris
- Rheumatic fever
- Goodpasture's syndrome
- Type 5 / Receptor mediated
- Type 3 hypersensitivity / Immune complex
- Foreign
- Henoch–Schönlein purpura
- Hypersensitivity vasculitis
- Reactive arthritis
- Farmer's lung
- Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis
- Serum sickness
- Arthus reaction
- Autoimmune
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Subacute bacterial endocarditis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Type 4 hypersensitivity (Delayed-Type Hypersensitivity)
- Foreign
- Autoimmune
- Diabetes mellitus type 1
- Hashimoto's thyroiditis
- Guillain–Barré syndrome
- Multiple sclerosis
- Coeliac disease
- Giant-cell arteritis
- GVHD (Graft-versus-host disease)
- Transfusion-associated graft versus host disease
- Unknown/Multiple types
- Foreign
- Autoimmune
- Sjögren's syndrome
- Autoimmune hepatitis
- Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS1 / APS2)
- Autoimmune adrenalitis
- Systemic autoimmune disease
Immunodeficiency
- Primary immunodeficiency
- Acquired immunodeficiency
- Complement deficiency
Cancers of the immune system
Myeloid diseases
Inflammatory diseases
Immunoproliferative immunoglobulin disorders
Immunoproliferative immunoglobulin disorders
Lymphatic organ disease
Immunologic techniques and tests
- Flow cytometry
- Mass cytometry
- Histology
- Adoptive cell transfer
- Experiments in immunology
- Genetically modified mouse
- Immunofluorescence
- Immunofixation
- Immunoadsorption
- MHC multimer
- Hybridoma technology
- Rabbit hybridoma
- Developmental studies hybridoma bank
Immunology and Health
- Prevention
- Immunostimulants
- Immunotherapy
- Activation immunotherapy
- Sublingual immunotherapy
- Allergen immunotherapy
- Immunosuppressive drug
-
- Temporarily induced immunity
- Adoptive immunity
Immunologists
Immunology lists
- List of autoimmune diseases
- List of immunologists
- List of viruses
- List of human clusters of differentiation
- List of vaccine ingredients
- List of allergens
- List of cytokines
- List of cytokine receptors
- List of pattern recognition receptors
- List of tissue-resident macrophages
- List of branches of immunology
- List of acute-phase proteins
References
- Janeway's Immunobiology textbook Searchable free online version at the National Center for Biotechnology Information
- "HGNC Gene Group: C-type lectin domain containing". Retrieved 2019-08-30.
- Geijtenbeek TB, Gringhuis SI (July 2009). "Signalling through C-type lectin receptors: shaping immune responses". Nat. Rev. Immunol. 9 (7): 465–79. doi:10.1038/nri2569. PMC 7097056. PMID 19521399.
- Royet J, Gupta D, Dziarski R (December 2011). "Peptidoglycan recognition proteins: modulators of the microbiome and inflammation". Nat. Rev. Immunol. 11 (12): 837–51. doi:10.1038/nri3089. PMID 22076558.
External links
- BMC: Immunology- BioMed Central:Immunology is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles.
- Nature Reviews Immunology (journal home)
- Janeway's Immunobiology textbook Searchable free online version at the National Center for Biotechnology Information
- Overview at Medical College of Georgia
- MUGEN NoE murine models for immunological disease
- Transplantation Immunology Interesting web site made by the faculty of medicine of the University of Geneva dealing with the immunological issues linked with the transplantation of materials genetically different between donor and recipient (hematopoietical stem cells, organs or the transfusion of blood).
- Online lectures in immunology University of South Carolina
- BRT-Burleson Research Technologies Tests the effects of pharmaceuticals in the developmental stage on the immune system.