Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Insight
Nature 454, 428-435 (24 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature07201; Published online 23 July 2008
Open Innovation Challenges
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Senior Faculty Positions
- Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies
- Port St. Lucie, FL
Academic Surgical Pathologist
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) / Harvard Medical School
- Boston, MA
Review Article Origin and physiological roles of inflammation
Ruslan Medzhitov1
Abstract
Inflammation underlies a wide variety of physiological and pathological processes. Although the pathological aspects of many types of inflammation are well appreciated, their physiological functions are mostly unknown. The classic instigators of inflammation — infection and tissue injury — are at one end of a large range of adverse conditions that induce inflammation, and they trigger the recruitment of leukocytes and plasma proteins to the affected tissue site. Tissue stress or malfunction similarly induces an adaptive response, which is referred to here as para-inflammation. This response relies mainly on tissue-resident macrophages and is intermediate between the basal homeostatic state and a classic inflammatory response. Para-inflammation is probably responsible for the chronic inflammatory conditions that are associated with modern human diseases.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
