Chapter 1 - THE EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF INFLAMMATION

Abstract

This chapter discusses the experimental approach to the study of inflammation. Inflammation is a process that begins following a sub-lethal injury to tissue and ends with complete healing. Between the injury and the healing, a variety of cells are mobilized and undergo certain changes. The inflammatory process is a defense mechanism aimed at preserving the viability of living tissues. The inflammatory signals seem to be scattered and disarranged rather than proceeding step-wise through a symmetrical cascade to a noninflammatory endpoint. Inflammatory response is nonspecific, and the evolutionary process did not endow it with ultimate discrimination. When it gets turned on, therefore, by accident so to speak, and all the mechanisms start to operate at once, it is a quite damaging event, leading not to healing but to morbidity and death. The endothelial cell is certainly a crucial intermediary in inflammatory reactions and chemotaxis is certainly an important inflammatory mechanism. The use of the microscope to describe the in vivo changes associated with inflammation gave an enormous impetus for the understanding of the process.