Inflammation: crucial areas and clinical relevance

Inflammation as mediated by different cooperating components is basically a protective and reparative response to tissue injury. Inflammation however itself can also be the cause of tissue destruction in certain clinical situations. Factors which might be responsible to specify or select the area in which inflammation will occur are still largely speculative. Of central importance in inflammatory reactions is the blood vessel system which serves as transport system and which itself might become the target organ of a chronic perpetuating inflammatory process. The latter is the case in certain clinical syndromes, in which factors are ill understood which are influencing a local or systemic inflammatory reaction.