How inflammatory resolution shapes tissue immunity

Abstract

Inflammation is a protective response to infection and injury. However, once its job is done it’s imperative that inflammation then switches off. Resolution of acute inflammation is a natural sequence of events that, until now, was believed to lead tissues back to the physiological and immunological state they experienced before inflammation occurred. However, we propose that this is not the case, and that resolution triggers a novel series of events that shapes long-term tissue immunity.

Consequently, we propose that failure to engage these resolution-triggered protective systems may help to explain development of tissue injury and chronic inflammatory diseases. Therefore, we wish to understand how the resolution of inflammatory responses triggers this novel phase of prolonged local immune protection at the cellular and molecular level.