How Your Immune System Fights Infection: First & Second Line Defense

the human immune system is the most complex biological system we know after the human brain and yet most of us never

learn how it works or what it is your immune system consists of hundreds of tiny and two large organs it has its own

transport Network spread throughout your body every day it makes hundreds of billions of fresh cells organized like

an army with soldiers captains Intelligence Officers heavy weapons and crazy suicide bombers it's not some sort

of abstract entity your immune system is you your biology protecting you from the billions of microorganisms that want to

consume you and from your own perverted cells that turn into cancer it's so manifold that it's impossible to cover

in one video so we'll make a series looking at different aspects of it today what happens when your body is

invaded and your first lines of defenses are engaged in a fight for life and [Music]

death it's been a normal day when suddenly the world explodes and an asteroid rips the sky open countless

alien life forms invade ready to destroy cities and infrastructure and eat civilians or this is what your cells

experience you look at your bleeding thumb that you just cut on a dirty twig in the park how annoying but inside the

wound a horrible catastrophe has happened there are dead cells and blood and dirt everywhere even worse countless

bacteria invade the warm Caverns between your helpless cells to explore their new home steal your resources and poop

everywhere immediately the first stage of your defense kicks in the cells that survived the impact or

are hurt or dying scream in panic releasing an onslaught of chemical alarm signals that awaken your immune system

the first cells to show up are macrofagos if an average cell were the size of a human a maccrage would be the

size of a black rhino a stoic cell in principle but you wouldn't want to annoy it bacteria do annoy them within seconds

the large cells attack and begin killing them without Mercy they stretch out Parts like the Arms of an octopus and

grab the bacteria to swallow them whole and digest them alive a maccrage can eat 100 bacteria before it's exhausted but

there are too many enemies so the maccrage is call for reinforcements in your blood hundreds of

thousands of neutrophils pick up their signals and move to the battlefield neutrophils are intense suicide Warriors

that only live to kill they're so enthusiastic itic about killing that they kill themselves a few days after

birth so they don't have time to accidentally destroy your body from the inside as soon as neutrophils arrive

they begin vomiting deadly chemicals at bacteria or devour them they are so careless in their attacks that they are

causing real damage to your own cells but collateral damage is not their concern now

orever some neutrophils go so far to push their suicide button and explode casting wide and toxic Nets made from

their own DNA filled with deadly chemicals that trap and kill bacteria sometimes they can continue

fighting after that even though they're sort of dead already this is how much fun they have killing while the battle

rages your blood vessels let fluid stream into the battlefield like a dam opening up towards a valley you notice

this as inflammation your thumb swells up a little and gets red and warm the fluid brings a silent killer into the

Battle Zone millions of compliment proteins a sort of automated liquid weapon that stuns and kills bacteria by

ripping holes into them we made a whole video explaining them in detail we're reaching a crossroad now if things go

well your first line of defense kills the Invaders quickly but sometimes the enemies are too strong and would

overwhelm your defenses eventually which means certain death for you the human this is the hour of the dendritic cell

your immune system's intelligence officer while your soldiers were bashing in heads it was collecting samples by

ripping bacteria into tiny parts and covering itself in it like a soldier decorating itself in the guts of a dead

enemy the cell leaves the battlefield and enters the Super Highway of your immune system that connects all your

tissues with your immune headquarters your lymph nodes the dendritic cell coming from the

battlefield is looking for a helper te cell which is a sort of allpurpose Commander cell within your immune Army

but not any helper te cell one that happens to have just the right weapon for the bacteria that infected your

wound so it goes around and rubs itself still covered in bacteria Parts against every helper tea cell it meets most tea

cells are a bit disgusted and not interested but after a few hours something clicks a helper te cell

recognizes the bacteria parts this cell is the weapon that's needed right now the dendritic cell is

overjoyed and activates the helper te cell okay wait how come your immune system has a cell that has a weapon

against the specific bacteria that infected you well your immune system has a perfect weapon against every possible

disease in the universe against the Black Death the Corona virus or an infection that will emerge in 100 years

on Mars we'll talk about this a bit more in the the next video because it's very complex so for now just know that you

have billions of unique helper te cells that each have weapons against every possible

enemy after the right t- cell is activated your second line of defense awakes and Rises like a teenager that

needs to get up on a school day very slowly your heavy weapons are incredibly effective but they're not fast the

activated helper te cell begins to clone itself over and over again one becomes two two become four until

there are thousands of them now they split into two groups the first group quickly moves to help out your soldiers

at the battlefield things are getting out of hand a tired maccrage is ready to give up after fighting for days it just

wants to go to sleep like many of its buddies have done already but now the helper tea cells arrive one of them

comes to the tired maccrage and Whispers something using special chemical signals in a heartbeat the demoralized soldier

feels fresh again but there's something else a hot white anger the maccrage knows what it needs to do kill

invigorated it throws itself against the enemies once again all over the battlefield this begins to happen

meanwhile the second group of hel cells was working on activating another line of defense B cells your antibody

factories antibodies are protein super weapons that look like tiny crabs with two Pines

to grab enemies just like the helper T cells there are B cells in your body that are able to make just the right

antibodies for every possible enemy and the helper T cell is looking for exactly these B cells after a day or two the

right B cell is found and begins to clone itself as soon as enough clones have been made each B cell begins

pumping out up to 2,000 antibodies per second about a week after you injured yourself

and bacteria invaded your second line of defense finally arrives in full force the tiny Army begins to saturate the

battlefield pinching and stunning desperate bacteria the antibodies Clump them together and make them unable to

move or fight while your soldiers Massacre the defenseless victims the tide is turning fast as the last enemies

are cleaned up your soldiers realize they are no longer needed and begin to kill themselves to save resources but

not all of them a few helper te cells remain and turn into memory cells they will guard the tissue for years making

sure the same bacteria will never again gain a foothold here similarly a few B cells will stay alive and keep producing

a low amount of antibodies making you immune against this bacteria maybe for the rest of your life one day you wake

up and notice that the wound has grown over and left nothing but but a faint red mark you were completely unaware of

the drama yourselves had to deal with for you the whole ordeal was a slight annoyance while for millions of cells it

was a desperate fight for life and death but this is just the beginning of the Epic story that unfolds inside you

every day and is told in full in immune a journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive written by Philip

Demmer the founder and headwriter of ktz kazak the book is a beautifully Illustrated deep dive into the immune

system the most important thing you don't know enough about that will forever change how you think about your

body written to be as simple and fun as possible it's been an ongoing passion project for almost a decade because the

immune system is just about the most amazing and fascinating topic there is so go on a journey and get to know your

own body from Mystery organs murder universities to the largest library in the universe explore how incredibly vast

your immune system is and how it actually works how it fights enemies from cancer to HIV or just the flu learn

how you can boost it and if that's actually a good idea the book will be out in 6 weeks and it would mean the

world to us and philli if you could pre-order it pre-ordering is super important in the world of books and in

contrast to games we can guarantee that it's actually finished and there will be no day one patch there's a link in the

description this is the end of a decade long personal journey and we'd love to see what you think thank you for

watching [Music]