Molecular pharmacology of inflammation
J.M. Pfeilschifter
In collaboration with B. Brüne (Frankfurt, Germany); R. Brunkhorst (Frankfurt, Germany); J. Couchman (London, England); S-E. Dahlen (Stockholm, Sweden); D. Fabbro (Basel, Switzerland); J. Fischer (Düsseldorf, Germany); U. Forstermann (Mainz, Germany); T. Spehr (Frankfurt, Germany); G. Geisslinger (Frankfurt, Germany); G. Grammatikos (Thessaloniki, Greece); H-J. Gröne (Heidelberg, Gernany); L.-O. Hattenbach (Ludwigshafen, Germany); A. Huwiler (Bern, Switzerland); R.V. Iozzo (Phildadelphia, USA): P-J. Jacobsson (Stockholm, Sweden); B. Kleuser (Potsdam, Germany); H-J. Pavenstädt (Münster, Germany); W. Pfeilschifter (Lüneburg, Germany); L. Sorokin (Münster, Germany); C. Thiemermann (London, England); I. Wittig (Frankfurt, Germany); M. Young (Bethesda, USA); S. Zeuzem (Frankfurt, Germany)
Introduction
Our group is interested in the molecular mechanisms of inflammation that underlie the so-called cardinal symptoms of inflammation including redness, heat, swelling and pain.These symptoms are due to vasodilatation in pericapillary beds and increased vascular permeability to solutes, followed rapidly by neutrophil and other inflammatory cell infiltration. The complexity of this stage is reflected in the large number of inflammatory mediators that are synthesized and released in response to an injurious agent, such as C5a, proteases, toxic oxygen radicals, arachidonic acid metabolites, platelet activating factor and a variety of cytokines.We use renal mesangial cells, podocytes and enothelial cells as model systems to study the regulation of key enzymes and mediators under inflammatory conditions. In addition we are interested in the signalling pathways and functions of various inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1, interleukin 18, interleukin 22 and tumor necrosis factor. The functional relevance of these mediators is evaluated in various experimental models of glomerulonephritis, hemorrhagic shock and endotoxemia. Cutaneous wound healing prototypically reflects processes that generally occur also in kidney injury and renegeration and form a second major research topic in the Institute.