Medical research

New research reveals gut microbiota link to colitis

A study conducted by Jun Sun's research team at the University of Illinois Chicago has revealed a new and critical role of Axin1 in regulating intestinal epithelial development and microbial homeostasis. The research, titled ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

New insights into mysterious blood vessel disease temporal arteritis

Giant cell arteritis (GCA), formerly known as temporal arteritis, was first described by Mayo Clinic doctors and classified as an inflammatory condition of the blood vessels in the early to mid-20th century. The condition ...

Medical research

Team develops a sugary-sweet new method for biomarker discovery

Everyone loves a sweet treat, even our cells. While we typically think of sugar as a component of our diet that gives us energy, sugars are also very important in guiding the activity of our cells. Sugar molecules can be ...

page 1 from 40

Inflammation

Inflammation (Latin, inflamatio, to set on fire) is the complex biological response of vascular tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or irritants. It is a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli as well as initiate the healing process for the tissue. Inflammation is not a synonym for infection. Even in cases where inflammation is caused by infection, the two are not synonymous: infection is caused by an exogenous pathogen, while inflammation is the response of the organism to the pathogen.

In the absence of inflammation, wounds and infections would never heal and progressive destruction of the tissue would compromise the survival of the organism. However, an inflammation that runs unchecked can also lead to a host of diseases, such as hay fever, atherosclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. It is for that reason that inflammation is normally closely regulated by the body.

Inflammation can be classified as either acute or chronic. Acute inflammation is the initial response of the body to harmful stimuli and is achieved by the increased movement of plasma and leukocytes from the blood into the injured tissues. A cascade of biochemical events propagates and matures the inflammatory response, involving the local vascular system, the immune system, and various cells within the injured tissue. Prolonged inflammation, known as chronic inflammation, leads to a progressive shift in the type of cells which are present at the site of inflammation and is characterised by simultaneous destruction and healing of the tissue from the inflammatory process.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA