Glossary
Resolution of inflammation.
Direct answer
Resolution of inflammation is the actively driven ending of an inflammatory response. Recruitment of further neutrophils stops, spent cells are engulfed and degraded by macrophages, and the tissue returns to its earlier state or scars over. Resolution is a programme in its own right, with mediators of its own.
The end of inflammation was long viewed as passive fading. Specialised lipid mediators, including resolvins, lipoxins and protectins, in fact trigger the switch: macrophages change programme and clear dying cells. Where this step is missing the reaction stalls, and an acute episode can turn into chronic inflammation instead.
One point matters for cross species comparison: resolution can hardly be measured in blood at all. In the horse, serum amyloid A falls quickly once the stimulus is gone, which gives a coarse timing marker. A falling value shows decreasing activity, not the quality of tissue repair.
Acute inflammationChronic inflammationCytokineSerum amyloid A
The evidence letter
Once a month: new syntheses, checked studies, and what has changed in the state of the evidence.