Systems biology and inflammation

Abstract

Inflammation is a complex, multiscale biological response to threats - both internal and external - to the body, which is also required for proper healing of injured tissue. In turn, damaged or dysfunctional tissue stimulates further inflammation. Despite continued advances in characterizing the cellular and molecular processes involved in the interactions between inflammation and tissue damage, there exists a significant gap between the knowledge of mechanistic pathophysiology and the development of effective therapies for various inflammatory conditions. We have suggested the concept of translational systems biology, defined as a focused application of computational modeling and engineering principles to pathophysiology primarily in order to revise clinical practice. This chapter reviews the existing, translational applications of computational simulations and related approaches as applied to inflammation. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.