Definition

Noun: 1. The suppression or reduction of the body's natural immune response: A state in which the immune system's ability to fight infections and other diseases is deliberately or unintentionally weakened or lowered.

Usage

Immunosuppression is used to describe a medical state or the process of inducing such a state. It is a technical term common in medical contexts. - It can be a deliberate therapeutic action, such as preventing the rejection of a transplanted organ. - It can be an incidental side effect of other treatments, like certain cancer therapies. - It makes the body more susceptible to infections.

Examples

• The patient required immunosuppression after the heart transplant to prevent organ rejection.
• A common side effect of the chemotherapy was immunosuppression, leaving her vulnerable to infections.
• Doctors carefully monitor the level of immunosuppression in transplant recipients.

Advanced Usage

• Therapeutic immunosuppression: The deliberate induction of immunosuppression for a medical benefit.
  • Therapeutic immunosuppression is a critical component of modern transplant medicine.
• Drug-induced immunosuppression: Immunosuppression caused by pharmaceutical agents.
  • The patient's drug-induced immunosuppression required prophylactic antibiotics.

Variants and Related Words

• Immunosuppressant (noun): A substance or drug that causes immunosuppression.
  • Cyclosporine is a powerful immunosuppressant.
• Immunosuppressive (adjective): Having the effect of suppressing the immune response.
  • The patient is on an immunosuppressive regimen.
• Immunosuppressed (adjective): Describing an organism whose immune response is weakened.
  • Immunosuppressed individuals should avoid large crowds.

Synonyms

• Immune suppression
• Myelosuppression (specifically refers to suppression of bone marrow activity, often leading to immunosuppression as a consequence)

Antonyms

• Immunostimulation (the enhancement of the immune response)
• Immunocompetence (the normal ability of the body to produce an immune response)

Noun

1. lowering the body's normal immune response to invasion by foreign substances; can be deliberate (as in lowering the immune response to prevent rejection of a transplanted organ) or incidental (as a side effect of radiotherapy or chemotherapy for cancer)