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ISSN 0006 2979, Biochemistry (Moscow), 2016, Vol. 81, No. 11, pp. 1237 1239. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2016.
Original Russian Text D. V. Kuprash, S. A. Nedospasov, 2016, published in Biokhimiya, 2016, Vol. 81, No. 11, pp. 1477 1480.
Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Inflammation
D. V. Kuprash1,2* and S. A. Nedospasov1,2
1Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia; E mail: [email protected]
2Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Received August 15, 2016
AbstractInflammation is one of the most fundamental and pronounced protective reactions of the organism. From ancient times to the present day, complex and diverse patterns of inflammation development and their role in various diseases have attracted attention of investigators. This issue of Biokhimiya/Biochemistry (Moscow) includes experimental studies and reviews dedicated to various aspects of this important and interesting problem.
DOI: 10.1134/S0006297916110018
Key words: signs of inflammation, infection, tissue damage, phagocytosis, innate immunity, inflammatory mediators, poly morphism
Inflammatory reactions were phenomenologically described in ancient times. Already in the IV century B.C., Hippocrates depicted signs of inflammation that in a familiar classic view were articulated by Celsius, a con temporary of Jesus of Nazareth: redness (rubor), pain (dolor), heat (calor), and swelling (tumor). The famous Roman physician Galen, who lived and worked in the II century A.D. proposed a fifth sign disturbance of func tion (functio laesa). Since then, over the last two thousand years only one more sign has been added to a general clin ical picture of inflammation (figure) [1]: a shift of base acid balance to acidic pH (acidosis) due to hypoxia [2].
Even Galen rightly pointed out that inflammation is a natural body defense reaction [3], and the outstanding Scottish military surgeon John Hunter assigned an important role to inflammation during healing of gunshot wounds [4]. Now we understand that inflammation is tightly bound to innate immunity and its molecular mechanisms, and many inflammatory mediators are a part of innate immunity inherent to all multicellular organisms [5]. However, great physicians of the foretime were mainly guided by intuition and inferences based on the works of their predecessors as well as on personal experience, whereas inflammation theory became scien tifically justified only in the second half of the XIXth cen tury owing to studies by Rudolf Virchow...