Your new kitten scratches your roommate Her skin is reddened

Your new kitten scratches your roommate. Her skin is reddened and feels warm and sore to the touch; she thinks she has contracted some kind of fatal infection. In order to deflect her anger (she is definitely not a cat person!), you try telling her about the activities if the nonspecific defense system. Explain what is actually happening to her skin.

Solution

Non specific defense mechanism has initiated inflammation process in her skin leading to redness and sores. This is because the injured skin cells has started secreting chemicals such as histamines and prostaglandins, which has caused the blood vessels and capillaries near the injured area to dilate. This has increased permeability to WBCs like phagocytes in that area which in turn work to clean the area from the potential pathogens.