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| Acquired Immunity |
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| It is known as Adaptive or Specific immunity. |
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| Non-specific immunity is not specifically directed against a particular microbe. Specific immunity involves the production of a specific type of cell or specific molecule (antibody) to destroy a particular antigen. It is capable of recognising and selectively eliminating specific micro organisms. |
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| If antigen 1 invades the body, antibody 1 is produced against it. If antigen 2 invades the body, antibody 2 is produced against it and so on. |
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| Acquired immunity is found only in vertebrates. |
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| Whenever the non-specific defence mechanisms fail, specific defence mechanisms get activated. It requires several days to be activated. Thus acquired immunity supplements the protection provided by innate immunity. It gets activated in response to the presence of microbes in the system. |
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