[End stage renal failure is a chronic inflammatory disease]

For the past ten years, the discovery of the Toll-like receptor family have greatly contributed to our current understanding of the innate immune system. The first part of this article draws up the inflammatory reaction by integrating these new data. The second part deals with inflammation during end stage renal disease and introduces this special edition of Nephrologie: "Inflammation in dialysis, a daily concern". Through this edition, we would like to convince you that end stage renal failure is a chronic inflammatory disease and that better understanding of causes and consequences implied in dialysed patients inflammation will enable to improve their global therapeutic care.