Gou Young Koh and colleagues at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, Korea have discovered that macrophages, a type of immune cell, impair fluid drainage during peritoneal inflammation. They present these findings in the October 2009 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

A team of scientists at Emory University School of Medicine has identified a direct link between oxidative stress and inflammatory signals in the blood.

Inflammation, the body’s earliest response to damage or infection, can aid the healing process and trigger an immune response against invading pathogens. But inflammation gone awry can also undermine health, as in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or asthma.

Researchers have uncovered why some dietary fats, specifically long-chain fats, such as oleic acid (found in olive oil), are more prone to induce inflammation.

A research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has identified a protein produced by cancerous lung epithelial cells that enhances metastasis by stimulating the activity of inflammatory cells.

Medicinal plants have been used as traditional remedies for hundreds of years. Among them, S. barbata has been traditionally used in treatment of hepatitis, inflammation, osteomyelitis and gynecological diseases in China.

Researchers led by Dr. Brian Iritani at The University of Washington found that mice that lack the immune inhibitory molecule Smad3 are acutely sensitive to both bacterially-induced inflammation and cancer. They report these findings in the January 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

Dr. Sonia Oliani and colleagues at São Paulo State University have identified a potential new molecule that inhibits inflammation, receptor for formylated peptides-2 (FPR-2). These findings are presented in the January 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

Ricin, a lectin from the castor bean plant Ricinus communis is considered one of the most potent plant toxins. Ricin poisoning can cause severe tissue damage and inflammation and can result in death.

In a study to be published in the January 09 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Hoover-Plow and co-workers in seeking to define a role of apo(a) in leukocyte recruitment have identified a novel activity of apo(a) apolipoprotein that may function as a natural and cell specific suppressor of the inflammatory response in vivo.

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) is expressed abundantly in the necrotic core of coronary lesions and products of its enzymatic activity may contribute to inflammation and cell death, rendering plaque vulnerable to rupture.

The Stowers Institute’s Rong Li Lab has discovered that a protein previously shown to have a role in inflammation may also have a role in the formation of cysts in Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) — one of the most common life-threatening genetic diseases — and has shown that a drug inhibiting the protein can slow the disease in mice.