HSE, however, were resistant to plenty of disease-causing agents other than the H. simplex virus, suggesting that innate immunity could be specific, too.
Scientists found however, that feeder cells and serums derived from other animal cells introduced disease-causing agents that compromised the quality of the cell lines.
Innate immunity is the defence against infection that babies are born with, as opposed to adaptive immunity which is acquired as people develop antibodies through their exposure to disease-causing agents.