Proresolving mediators: new therapies to treat inflammatory diseases

Abstract Our bodies are constantly exposed to an enormous range of microbial insults, metabolic stress and tissue trauma that results in inflammation. Failure to efficiently regulate inflammation can result in uncontrolled acute and chronic inflammation and result in increased morbidity and mortality and contribute to a huge medical and economic burden throughout the world. Understanding the mechanisms by which our bodies regulate inflammation and return the inflamed tissue back to normal (the process of catabasis) is of vital importance if we are to find new ways in which to understand and ultimately treat pathological inflammation. Recent discoveries into the processes by which the inflammation goes away or resolves have identified a number of endogenous anti-inflammatory/proresolving lipid mediators that can dampen inflammation and accelerate the resolution of inflammation. These lipid mediators can form the basis of new therapies that augment the natural physiological response to control inflammation.