Tuesday, April 25, 2006 | Chronic inflammation

At sites of acute inflammation where the irritant is cleared and the process is resolved, macrophages eventually die or wander off into lymphatics. In chronic inflammatory sites, however, macrophages accumulation persists, and macrophages can proliferate. Steady release of lymphocyte-derived factors is an important mechanism by which macrophages are recruited to or immobilized in inflammatory sites. IL-4 or IFN-γ can also induce macrophages to fuse into large, multinucleated cells called giant cell.

16:20 Posted in histology | Permalink | Comments (0)