• Question: How does the inflammation mechanism work?

    Asked by Nico ;-) to Max, Lizzie, Francis, Sian on 9 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by malena.alonso.
    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      Cool question – I WISH we knew all the answers. Inflammation is really complicated and we are still doing a lot to study it. What we do know is that inflammation is the body’s way of responding to damage by trying to remove the source of danger, clear away any dead cells and start encouraging the remaining cells to heal.

      Your white blood cells are always patrolling your body, looking for infections or damage. If you get an infected cut, the white blood cells will detect the infection and release SOS signals to attract even more white blood cells which can fight the infection. Plasma (water from your blood) flows into the nearby tissues to help the white blood cells in their fight, and some of your arteries dilate (get wider) to bring even more plasma and white blood cells into the infected site. It’s this plasma which causes the puffiness and soreness.

      Maybe you could become a scientist and help us learn even more about inflammation?

    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 9 Mar 2018:

      Like Max said, the immune system has developed ways to detect when “something” goes wrong. When one of your cells (whichever type) is attacked, or damaged, or too old, it can send messages (for example in the blood, or simply on its surface) that the immune system will recognise and respond to.

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