Inflammation is a protective response to infection by the immune system that requires communication between different classes of immune cells to coordinate their actions. Acute inflammation is an important part of the immune response, but chronic inappropriate inflammation can lead to destruction of tissues in autoimmune disorders and perhaps neurodegenerative or cardiovascular disease. Secreted cytokine proteins provide signals between immune cells to coordinate the inflammatory response. Sources: [http://www.biocarta.com/pathfiles/h_inflamPathway.asp BioCarta]. d62

mast cell CL:0000097 Cell Type fibroblast CL:0000057 Cell Type B cell CL:0000236 Cell Type hematopoietic stem cell CL:0000037 Cell Type neutrophil CL:0000775 Cell Type 19834513 PubMed Chemical biology of inflammatory cytokine signaling. J Antibiot (Tokyo) 2009 Kataoka T helper T cell CL:0000912 Cell Type macrophage CL:0000235 Cell Type plasma cell CL:0000786 Cell Type endothelial cell CL:0000115 Cell Type signaling pathway PW:0000003 Pathway Ontology natural killer cell CL:0000623 Cell Type eosinophil CL:0000771 Cell Type