Which innate defense is a localized tissue response to injury or infection?

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Multiple Choice

Which innate defense is a localized tissue response to injury or infection?

Inflammation is the localized tissue response to injury or infection. When tissues are damaged, cells release chemical mediators like histamine that cause nearby blood vessels to dilate and become more permeable. This brings more blood—and with it immune cells such as neutrophils—to the site, allows fluids to leak into the tissue (edema), and creates an environment that helps contain and destroy invaders while starting tissue repair. The signs you often see—redness, heat, swelling, and pain—reflect these vascular and cellular changes at the injury site. This is distinct from fever, which is a whole-body rise in temperature driven by the brain in response to pyrogens; immune surveillance, which is the ongoing patrolling by immune cells throughout the body; and interferons, which are signaling proteins that alert and protect cells from viral infections but do not constitute a localized tissue reaction. Inflammation directly mediates the localized, rapid tissue-level defense at the site of injury or infection.

Inflammation is the localized tissue response to injury or infection. When tissues are damaged, cells release chemical mediators like histamine that cause nearby blood vessels to dilate and become more permeable. This brings more blood—and with it immune cells such as neutrophils—to the site, allows fluids to leak into the tissue (edema), and creates an environment that helps contain and destroy invaders while starting tissue repair. The signs you often see—redness, heat, swelling, and pain—reflect these vascular and cellular changes at the injury site.

This is distinct from fever, which is a whole-body rise in temperature driven by the brain in response to pyrogens; immune surveillance, which is the ongoing patrolling by immune cells throughout the body; and interferons, which are signaling proteins that alert and protect cells from viral infections but do not constitute a localized tissue reaction. Inflammation directly mediates the localized, rapid tissue-level defense at the site of injury or infection.

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