Dealing with Garbage is the Immune System’s Main Job

Abstract

The classical analogy for the immune system is of a military response to invasion. This is appropriate for explaining the complexities of the system’s response to infectious challenges but does not deal with the normal, routine, status quo functions of the system, as would occur during peacetime. As with the military, understanding the function of the immune response and its components requires an understanding of their responses and roles in maintenance of normal, status quo, everyday situations of the body and their ability to react to sporadic challenges. What follows is not meant to be a detailed or referenced review but more of an opinion to be shared with others besides my own students. Like a city, the body is constantly creating cellular and molecular garbage.