Question: hi im carla how does the immune system work to heal our injuries?

Ross King answered on 16 Nov 2015:

Hey Carla!

I could talk to you about this all day long! I’ll try and keep it brief 😛 If we have a true injury like a cut or a scrape, our immune system helps other cells to make a scab, heal the wound, and repair it back to normal. Other cells are better at this than immune cells, but we definitely need them to help.

If any bacteria or bugs get into the cut as it is healing, the immune system VERY quickly finds out about it, moves to where the bacteria are entering and starts to deal with the problem. Usually, our immune cells will eat up all of the bacteria but sometimes they release very toxic chemicals onto the bacteria, which kills them. Other cells of the immune system remember which bacteria came into our bodies, meaning that next time they can recognise the same bacteria MUCH quicker and stop us from getting sick. This is why if you get chicken pox, you usually only get it once, because the immune system is ready for the next infection and can deal with it much faster. I think this is one of the coolest things about the immune system – it remembers!!