What is an example of artificial active immunity?

• A. Monoclonal antibodies
• B. Vaccination
• C. IgG transferred from mother to fetus across the placenta; IgA in breast milk
• D. Administration of immune globulin

Answer: (B)

Artificial active immunity happens when the immune system is deliberately prompted to make its own defenses and memory cells in response to an introduced antigen. Vaccination is the classic example: vaccines present safe antigens—such as inactivated or attenuated pathogens, subunits, toxoids, or genetic material—that train B cells and T cells to respond and remember the pathogen. Later exposures then trigger a rapid and strong immune response.

Monoclonal antibodies provide immediate protection but don’t induce memory, so they’re a form of artificial passive immunity. Maternal IgG and breast milk IgA are natural passive immunity—protection without the recipient’s immune system actively learning the pathogen. Administering immune globulin is artificial passive immunity as well, supplying antibodies directly rather than teaching the immune system to recognize the threat.