What does "inflammatory process" mean?
1 Answer
It's the swelling of the cells that is referred to as the inflammatory process.
Explanation:
The human body has an "outside" and an "inside" and this doesn't just relate to skin. For instance, if you think about it and you mentally trace a path from the mouth and through the digestive tract and then out the other end, you'll see that that finger never passes through a wall or other type of barrier - the entire length of the digestive system is, in fact, outside of the body. The same is true for the lungs.
This does not mean that things can't pass through the barriers and move from one side to the other - in fact, that is precisely how nutrients move from the intestines and into the blood stream - they pass between cells that make up those barrier walls.
To prevent antigen invaders from passing through those gaps in between the cells, certain types of cells in the immune system can release the hormone histamine, which causes the cells to swell up, closing off the gaps between the cells, and making the invader easier to find and destroy.
It's the swelling of the cells that is referred to as the inflammatory process.
