chronic inflammation tagged posts

Oxidized lipids—fats structurally altered by enzymes, oxygen or free radicals—are double-edged swords that can both quell and ignite systemic inflammation, according to a new comprehensive review aimed at sharpening the overall understanding of an intricate class of highly reactive molecules.

Dr. Marco Di Gioia and Dr. Ivan Zanoni, two medical investigators from the divisions of immunology and gastroenterology at Harvard Medical School, explored this complex molecular universe by focusing on a class of compounds called oxidized phospholipids—oxPLs.

In their article published in Science Immunology, they explored why sharp differences in oxPL activity can have favorable or unfavorable biological outcomes...

Diabetes affects more than 40 million people in the United States, according to the American Diabetes Association. For many, the chronic condition means a lifetime of pain as worsening circulation leads to nonhealing ulcers in the extremities, especially the legs and feet.

Chronic inflammation, difficulty in forming nutrient-carrying capillaries, and overzealous immune cells that attack healing tissue all combine to make diabetic foot ulcers one of the most difficult wounds to treat...

In humans and other multicellular organisms, cells multiply. This defining feature allows embryos to grow into adulthood, and enables the healing of the many bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way.

Certain factors can cause cells to abandon this characteristic and enter a zombie-like state known as senescence where they persist but no longer divide to make new cells. Our bodies can remove these senescent cells that tend to pile up as we age. The older we get, however, the less efficient our immune systems become at doing so.

“In addition to no longer growing and proliferating, the other hallmark of senescent cells is that they have this inflammatory program causing them to secrete inflammatory molecules,” said Peter Adams, Ph.D...

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a previously unknown link between two key pathways that regulate the immune system in mammals — a finding that impacts our understanding of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This family of disorders severely impacts the health and quality of life of more than 2 million people in the United States.

The immune system has many pathways to protect the body from infection, but sometimes an overactive immune response results in autoimmune diseases including IBD, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple scler...