How The Immune System ACTUALLY Works – IMMUNE

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 death [Music] 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 macrophages if an average cell with the size of a human a macrophage 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 macrophage can eat 100 bacteria before it's exhausted but there are too many enemies so the macrophages 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 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 of 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 or ever 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 complement 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 superhighway 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 t cell which is a sort of all-purpose commander cell within your immune army but not any helper t 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 t-cell it meets most t-cells are a bit disgusted and not interested but after a few hours something clicks a helper t cell recognizes the bacteria parts this cell is the weapon that's needed right now the dendritic cell is overjoyed and activates the helper t 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 coronavirus or an infection that will emerge in 100 years on mars we'll talk about this a bit more in the next video because it's very complex so for now just know that you have billions of unique helper t-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 t 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 macrophage 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 t cells arrive one of them comes to the tired macrophage 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 macrophage 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 helper t 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 pincers 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 t 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 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 detmer the founder and head writer of kotzkozak 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 six weeks and it would mean the world to us and philip 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] you

Channel: Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

Views: 5,062,038

Rating: 4.981586 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: lXfEK8G8CUI

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/djbandit]

HOW THE IMMUNE SYSTEM ACTUALLY WORKS - IMMUNE

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.
It is 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 is 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 death?

Sources and further reading: https://sites.google.com/view/sources-immunesystemexplained/

[u/k0enf0rNL]

I ordered the book. I'm pretty excited about it because all the other merch is quite expensive but this one was somewhat cheaper and has more value to me.

[u/SCarolinaSoccerNut]

I love Kurzgesagt so much that I want to pre-order this book just to reward them for making my favorite channel on YouTube.

[u/BlinByard]

I can't wait to see all the amogus memes to come out of this

[u/-cresida]

The immune system would make a good MOBA. Or RTS

[u/Watcher_of_Cad_Nua]

neutrophils: WITNESS MEEEEEEEEEE! (explodes)

[u/disperso]

I was very excited when I saw the title of the video, my excitement grew even more when I heard that it's going to be a series, and I of course have bought the book in pre-sale.

I'm a person who grew loving Once Upon a Time... Life. My wife, a nurse, loved it as well, and now our 5 year old daughter is liking it as well. I wish Kurzgesagt could make a remake of Once Upon a Time... Life (I know it's a crazy idea, but one can dream, right?). Meanwhile, this videos would do. But I keep thinking of the potential of this. The immune system has been my favorite part of biology, one of my favorites of all sciences (and I studied electrical engineering, so I loved many branches of physics!).

Given how much we've been hearing about immune system during the last two years due to this horrible pandemic, I hope we can at least be enlightened a bit, and learn a thing or two of ourselves and how to be less afraid of the strangeness and scary parts of nature.

I'm really excited that there is a book and that there are going to be videos! Thank you everyone involved, truly! I need more exclamation marks! Yay!

[u/MiskatonicMD]

I'm not going to say what they look like. I'm not going to, you can't make me. You can't.

ඞ

[u/jib_reddit]

Amazing episode, I think I'm going to buy the book, I love science and want to try and encourage my daughter into STEM.