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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

Intravenous Endotoxin Challenge in Healthy Humans: An Experimental Platform to Investigate and Modulate Systemic Inflammation
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Published on: May 16, 2016

Evolution of inflammatory diseases.

Daniel Okin1, Ruslan Medzhitov

  • 1HHMI and Department of Immunobiology, Yale University Medical School, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.

Current Biology : CB
|September 15, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Inflammation, a protective response, is linked to modern diseases like obesity and cancer. Evolutionary mismatch between our biology and the rapidly changing environment likely explains this increased disease susceptibility.

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Last Updated: May 18, 2026

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Published on: April 21, 2015

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Human physiology
  • Pathology

Background:

  • Inflammation is a biological defense mechanism with inherent costs to tissue function.
  • Modern human diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cancer are increasingly associated with inflammation.
  • The evolutionary optimization of inflammatory responses for past environments may not align with current conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the evolutionary perspective of the inflammatory response.
  • To elucidate the link between inflammation and contemporary diseases.
  • To understand how evolutionary history influences modern disease susceptibility.

Main Methods:

  • Review of evolutionary biology principles applied to human physiology.
  • Analysis of the trade-offs inherent in inflammatory responses.
  • Examination of the impact of environmental change on human adaptation.

Main Results:

  • The human inflammatory response, optimized over evolutionary time, faces a mismatch with the modern environment.
  • Rapid environmental shifts due to niche construction outpace genetic adaptation.
  • This mismatch leads to suboptimal physiological trade-offs, increasing susceptibility to chronic diseases.

Conclusions:

  • An evolutionary mismatch between selected human traits and the modern environment contributes to chronic inflammatory diseases.
  • Understanding the evolutionary history of inflammation is crucial for explaining its role in contemporary health.
  • The study highlights the need to consider evolutionary factors in addressing modern disease burdens.