ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the molecular and cellular basis of the inflammatory response, a set of parallel reactions that is conserved in all vertebrates and provides rapid but relatively nonspecific defense against microbes. The inflammatory response is initiated by all types of tissue damage and mediates both wound cleansing and healing. The inflammatory response brings to the site of injury and invasion the cells and molecules that affect the adaptive immune response and thus serves as a bridge between the constitutive and adaptive systems of host defense. Prostaglandins and leukotrienes together with the vasoactive amines, histamine, serotonin, and bradykinin, play an important role in causing the pain characteristic of inflammation. The enhancement of permeability by the combined actions of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and vasoactive amines results in great enhancement of the inflammatory response with increase in infiltration of plasma and leukocytes into the site of tissue damage.
