C-Reactive Protein, widely regarded as a risk factor for hypertension and other forms of cardiovascular disease, plays a direct role in the onset of hypertension, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

As evidence mounts that the body's normally protective inflammation response can drive some precancerous tissues to become fully malignant, UCSF scientists report discovering an apparent trigger to this potentially deadly process.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that impaired function and loss of synapses in the hippocampus of a mouse form of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is related to the activation of immune cells called microglia, which cause inflammation. These events precede the formation of tangles - twisted fibers of tau protein that build up inside nerve cells - a hallmark of advanced AD. The researchers report their findings in the February 1 issue of Neuron.

Although it is becoming clear that inflammation induced by obesity is an important factor linking obesity to type 2 diabetes, the effects of one of the most abundant soluble factors known to have both anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic effects (adiponectin) remain to be completely determined.

Scientists in Georgia are reporting successful lab tests of new polymer microparticles that show promise as a long-sought way to deliver drugs directly into the cell structures responsible for inflammation. Those immune system structures, macrophages, devour and destroy foreign substances such as invading bacteria and cellular debris.

First evidence that neutrophils, or any cell other than mast cells, produce histamine in significant quantities in mouse study