الفهرس 
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Abstract
Inflammation was already recognized in ancient Egyptian times as described in the Smith Papyrus circa 1650 BC. Later on, the Roman Cornelius Celsius (circa AD 25) was the first to define inflammation as a process characterized by four cardinal signs readily visible on the body surface: heat, redness, swelling and pain. A fifth cardinal sign of inflammation, loss of function, was added by the famous 19th century German pathologist Rudolf Virchow (Allan and Rothwell, 2003).
Inflammation is generally considered as an essentially protective response to tissue injury (Punchard et al., 2004) caused by a noxious physical, chemical or microbiological stimulus (Kantarci and Van Dyke, 2003).
As a response to tissue injury, the immune system becomes activated and provokes an immune response to infection involving the recruitment of immune cells to the site of injury. Many cell types (granulocytes, monocytes and macrophages) and mediators (thromboxane, leukotrienes, platelet activating factor, interleukins, nitric oxide and tumor necrosis factors) (Gryglewski, 1981 & Nathan, 2002) are involved in this process.
Releasing of the mediators of inflammation results in the exudation of fluids and plasma proteins with migration of leukocytes to the site of injury (Barton, 2008), vasodilatation and increased vascular permeability (Sherwood and Toliver-Kinsky, 2004), heat and redness at the site of tissue damage which are caused by a rise in blood flow, pain which is caused by the stimulation of nerve endings (Brune et al., 1999) and loss of function which occurs as a result of tissue destruction (Kim et al., 2004a).
Although the inflammatory response is crucial for containing infection to prevent its spread, delivering cellular and humoral components of the body’s defense systems to the site of injury or infection and restoring tissue homeostasis (Barton, 2008), an excessive or over-long period of inflammation can be problematical and may even cause damage (Nathan, 2002 & Chavarria and Alcocer-Varela, 2004)., therefore resolution processes are necessary.
Resolution of inflammation (the anti-inflammatory response) is needed for the successful repair after tissue injury, as it is important for the inflammatory response to be limited and resolved. Many molecules play a counter-regulatory role in this resolution stage of inflammatory response to control its magnitude and duration (Serhan and Prescott, 2000). This role includes the inhibition of cells of inflammation and removal of dead cells and tissue debris (Jin et al., 1997)