Inflammation and Pain
Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury or the infiltration of a foreign substance. The process is defined by five cardinal signs: redness, heat, swelling, loss of function, and pain. Because of its relationship with pain and injury, various treatments for inflammation have been historically documented. During inflammation, pro-inflammatory mediators can be produced by infiltrating and resident immune cells. These pro-inflammatory mediators can induce pain. On the other hand, recent evidence suggests that inflammation also resolves pain by generating anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving mediators. The inflammatory process, when properly mediated via cellular mechanisms, eliminates pathogens and damaged or dead cells from the body. Thus, inflammation was proposed to resolve pain by producing specialized pro-resolving mediators (SPMs), derived from omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids. However, dysregulated inflammation, such as chronic inflammation, can lead to various pathological conditions associated with chronic pain. While acute pain, which is temporary and serves a protective purpose, is beneficial, chronic pain has no such protective purpose and severely degrades the quality of life of patients.
