Tissue injury leads to organ damage, especially when cellular repair mechanisms fail to restore cellular and tissue homeostasis or if tissues are left untreated. Following tissue injury, innate immune responses attempt to clear damaged cells/tissue to allow resolution of inflammation and promote tissue repair. In some cases, the adaptive immune response participates in tissue repair and regeneration, mostly through the action of T cells. However, the continuous presence of tissue insulting agent(s) can trigger a sustained or excessive immune response to create an inflammatory response, which may exacerbate the injury and further organ dysfunction. Examples of tissue-damaging agents that alter immune response are alcohol, infectious agents, drugs, toxins, autoimmune conditions, burn, trauma and overnutrition, among others.
Despite recent advances that have revealed mechanisms of immune response to tissue injury, immune response changes that eliminate or slow disease pathogenesis remains elusive. This is because immune responses to injury differ depending upon tissue, and factors such as age, gender, and comorbidity, create additional challenges in understanding immune responses to tissue injury. Moreover, agents that simultaneously affect multiple organs, like alcohol, differentially regulate immune responses in different tissues/organs, and our understanding of such immune response remain incomplete. Interestingly, emerging concepts including immunosenescence which attenuates the immune response, immunometabolism that links metabolic disease(s) (including cancer) to immune response, regulation by autophagy and epigenetics, are all fertile research areas for investigating how immune responses modify disease processes.
This special issue will highlight work that adds new knowledge to disease-modifying immune responses. We will consider reviews, full research articles for inclusion in this publication.
Tissue injury leads to organ damage, especially when cellular repair mechanisms fail to restore cellular and tissue homeostasis or if tissues are left untreated. Following tissue injury, innate immune responses attempt to clear damaged cells/tissue to allow resolution of inflammation and promote tissue repair. In some cases, the adaptive immune response participates in tissue repair and regeneration, mostly through the action of T cells. However, the continuous presence of tissue insulting agent(s) can trigger a sustained or excessive immune response to create an inflammatory response, which may exacerbate the injury and further organ dysfunction. Examples of tissue-damaging agents that alter immune response are alcohol, infectious agents, drugs, toxins, autoimmune conditions, burn, trauma and overnutrition, among others.
Despite recent advances that have revealed mechanisms of immune response to tissue injury, immune response changes that eliminate or slow disease pathogenesis remains elusive. This is because immune responses to injury differ depending upon tissue, and factors such as age, gender, and comorbidity, create additional challenges in understanding immune responses to tissue injury. Moreover, agents that simultaneously affect multiple organs, like alcohol, differentially regulate immune responses in different tissues/organs, and our understanding of such immune response remain incomplete. Interestingly, emerging concepts including immunosenescence which attenuates the immune response, immunometabolism that links metabolic disease(s) (including cancer) to immune response, regulation by autophagy and epigenetics, are all fertile research areas for investigating how immune responses modify disease processes.
This special issue will highlight work that adds new knowledge to disease-modifying immune responses. We will consider reviews, full research articles for inclusion in this publication.