Inflammation
signs of activation of the immune system
Inflammation (from Latin: inflammatio) is part of the biological defence response of body tissues. Inflammatory immunovascular responses can be triggered by a broad range of stimuli, including physical trauma, "dead, damaged, malfunctioning or stressed tissues", pathogens, irritants, toxins, overuse, autoimmunity, allergens, and foreign bodies (e.g. silica and asbestos). The five cardinal signs are heat, pain, redness, swelling, and loss of function (Latin calor, dolor, rubor, tumor, and functio laesa).
Inflammation is a generic response, and therefore is considered a mechanism of innate immunity, not adaptive immunity. It involves immune cells, blood vessels, and molecular mediators. The function of inflammation is to eliminate the initial cause of cell injury, clear out damaged cells and tissues, and initiate tissue repair. Too little inflammation can lead to progressive tissue destruction by the harmful stimulus (e.g. bacteria) and compromise the survival of the organism, but too much inflammation, in the form of chronic inflammation, is associated with various diseases, such as hay fever, periodontal disease, atherosclerosis, and osteoarthritis.
Inflammation can be classified as acute or chronic.
“Inflammation” enters the record as signs of activation of the immune system. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Inflammation, signs and activation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q101991. The Library of Congress control number is sh85066108. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Inflammation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.