Microparticles as regulators of inflammation - Novel players of cellular crosstalk in the rheumatic diseases

As illustrated in Figure 5, microparticles represent novel signaling structures that can be generated during cell activation and apoptosis, 2 events fundamental to inflammation. These particles may serve to both induce and amplify inflammation and potentiate tissue damage in rheumatic disease. Furthermore, microparticles represent potentially useful biomarkers, since key cells in inflammation can be sampled from the blood, using cell surface markers to allow identification of individual cell types. Future studies will define the cell processes generating microparticles, the signaling pathways they induce, and their potential as targets for new therapies, based on either their formation or their triggering of downstream effects in inflammation. Once viewed as by-products of other cellular processes, microparticles are emerging as an exciting new element for information exchange during inflammation, with rheumatic disease as an important setting for their expression.