Neurological factors: only in very early phases of inflammatory reaction

Chemical factors:

1. Factors contributing to increased vascular permeability in inflammatory edema
   1. From Cells
      • Arachidonic acid metabolites, derived from cell membrane phospholipids:
      • Various stimuli (mechanical, chemical, physical) induce phopsholipases (lysosomes) to release AA.
      • Result:
        • Prostaglandins
          • vasodilation
          • increased permeability.
        • Leukotrienes
          • increased permeability
          • chemotaxis (see below)
      • Platelet activating factor (PAF)
      • Vasoactive Amines — in humans, mainly histamine
      • Endothelins (peptides produced by endothelial cells) are strongly vasoconstrictive
   2. From Plasma:
      1. 3 distinct but interrelated systems:
         1. Complement
         2. Clotting
         3. Kinin
2. Factors contributing to recruitment of inflammatory cells to the site of tissue injury (chemotaxis)
   1. C5a, a local hormone
   2. Bacterial and mitochondrial products
   3. Leukotrienes (from archidonic acid metabolism)
   4. Cytokines
   5. Histamine is chemotactic for eosinophils.
3. Sialic acid (a simple sugar) shifts an IgG antibody species from a pro-inflammatory state to one that is anti-inflammatory. See Single Sugar Found Responsible For An Antibody's Ability To Treat Inflammation, from the Rockefeller Institute.

For More Information

• Most of these notes are taken directly from Mediators of Inflammation, on the site of the Pathology Department of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada — but there's more there.
• The Inflammation Syndrome, by Jack Challem. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ, 2003.
• Nutritional and botanical modulation of the inflammatory cascade--eicosanoids, cyclooxygenases, and lipoxygenases--as an adjunct in cancer therapy, by Jeanne M. Wallace, PhD, CNC. Integrative Cancer Therapies 1(1); 2002 pp. 7-37. On the site of Dr. Wallace's company, Nutritional Solutions. Although Wallace's focus is on cancer therapies, this paper provides a useful detailed description — and a good diagram — of the biosynthesis pathways from fatty acids to eicosanoids.
• My pages
  • Arthritis
  • Anti-Inflammatories
  • Detoxification
  • Histidine
  • Histamine

[need to clean up the overlap between this page and the Histamine page.]