Inflammation between defense and disease: impact on tissue repair and chronic sickness

literally meaning burning or setting on fire-, being mostly considered a negative response of the organism to the infection (pain, heat, redness, swelling and loss of function). However, we are now aware that inflammation is a protective response, involving immune cells, blood vessels, and a wide range of molecular mediators, which must eliminate the initial cause of cell injury, clear out necrotic cells and damaged tissue, initiating tissue repair. Harmful stimuli are represented not only by microbial invasion, but also by physical- (trauma, injury of all kind), chemical-, mechanical stress, some metabolic disorders, electrolyte imbalance, or absence of vital components (oxygen, glucose). In this context, each organism has different abilities to respond and control the inflammatory reaction, challenging the treatment of such kind of disease and explaining the difficulty to find a unified therapeutic strategy