The Inflammatory Process

Introduction
The process of death and regeneration is much like a law of the universe, and works in the case of the human body too, as its primary role is to survive. Much like nature, the body is a self-correcting system that will heal itself over a period of time regardless of how seriously it is affected. One of the simplest examples to demonstrate this is the process by which a lizard grows back its tail. Even though by evolution’s standards we are much more complex organisms, this process of tissue regeneration applies to us too.

Inflammation – What is it?
Now, as soon as there is tissue damage, the body initiates a series of events in order to remove dead tissue and replace it accordingly. Inflammation can be detected by observable characteristics such as pain, redness, swelling, heat and loss of function that calls to attention the part that has undergone tissue damage. So to define it, it is the body’s natural response to the situation that has caused tissue injury, after which tissue regeneration is accomplished.

The Process – What happens next?
Until now, we all know that inflammation occurs just after tissue damage has occurred, so what happens in this process?

1.    Release of Chemicals
As soon as the damage to tissue has occurred, chemicals are released from the cells of the tissue in order to initiate the inflammatory response. Some of these chemicals are kinins, prostroglandins and histamine.

What these chemicals do while working together is increase vasodilation (the widening of the blood capillaries) and their permeability, as it increases blood flow to the part of the body where the injury has taken place.

Finally, these substances also perform the task of being chemical messengers in order to build the body’s natural defense cells also known as ‘chemotaxis’ that help fortify the area affected by injury. One caveat of this process of attracting these defense cells is that they heighten the sensitivity of the pain fibres in the affected area, hence inflicting pain.

2. Leukocyte Migration
Immediately, after the process of ‘chemotaxis’ is complete, white blood cells (leukocytes) migrate to the afflicted area. Now, there are two kinds of blood cells that work in this stage of the inflammatory response namely macrophages and neutrophils, of which the latter reach the injured tissue area first and kill harmful bacteria that might have accumulated around the injured area (very similar to why an injured area is disinfected first by a nurse/ doctor) .

The blood cells ‘macrophages’ then take over by surrounding the dead cells and bacteria while cleaning up the area, so that new cells can grown in order to complete the tissue healing process.

As the process of healing can take weeks, they arrive at the injured site within 72 hours of the injury, and remain until the injury is completely healed.

After this process, the tissue healing stage begins with simultaneous working of fibroblasts (collagenation) while the microphages continue to clear out dead tissue and bacteria. The fibroblasts begin to construct a new collagen matrix which will be instrumental in creating the structure for new cells leading to angiogenesis, which is the process of growth of new capillaries so that the blood flow to the region can be restored which, in turn, will facilitate the growth of new cells in the region.

After which the proliferation phase begins (and can last upto 4 weeks), which removes granulation tissue (muscle cells are an example) that will prevent maximum functionality of tissue if left unchecked.

Finally, the process of remodeling occurs where new cells begin to form in the injured area to rebuild tissue, which can take up to months (and in some cases, even years) to complete the process.

In Closing
So this is the process as to how any injury goes from being damaged to new tissue in accordance to the laws of nature, which only goes to show that the body much like nature is a self-correcting mechanism, and is adequately equipped to heal itself provided proper nourishment is available.

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