Innate and Adaptive Immunity in Fish: A Review

The fish inhabitant in an aquatic environment so it persists exposure to pathogen and stressor factors so they have a developing immune system similar to that in high vertebrate with some differences points. Head Kidney considered the main and primary hematopoietic organs while spleen, thymus and gut-associated lymphoid tissue represented secondary hematopoietic organs. The immune system divided to the innate immune system doesn’t have a memory of previous responses, non-specific cellular as natural killer cells, dendritic cells, neutrophils, basophils and eosinophils with non-specific component these involve complement, lysosomes and acute-phase protein, if the pathogen persists the specific, memory adaptive immunity would be stimulation which composed of two subunits humeral and natural antibodies act for invading extracellular pathogen and the second subunits which are cytokines and T-lymphocyte act for kill intracellular bacterial, parasitic and viral infection. Both subunits (innate and adaptive) of the immune system act each together in the hosts to prevent microorganism’s infection and reducer the environmental stressors and give fish immune status. It is concluded from this article review that fish, like mammalians, have an advanced immune system that plays a role in fish resistance to pathological factors and maintaining fish health.