Acute and chronic pancreatitis result in considerable morbidity, are increasing in incidence, and have a high mortality. Due to the inaccessibility of the pancreas to study, our understanding of the pathophysiology of pancreatitis remains limited. Our current knowledge of the evolution of pancreatitis can be described as a progression from an initial acinar cell injury to local and systemic inflammatory responses. If resolution fails to occur, infection or chronicity may supervene.

We invite researchers to contribute original research articles and review articles on topics that shed new insights into the inflammatory processes that occur in pancreatitis. These insights may derive from animal models, studies on the human pancreas, measurement of systemic inflammatory markers, clinical studies, and genetic analyses. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Genetic polymorphisms and mutations
• Cytokines and chemokines
• Transcription factors
• The heat shock response
• Autoimmune pancreatitis
• Neuroimmune interactions
• SIRS, sepsis, and MODS in acute pancreatitis

Articles published in this special issue will not be subject to the journal's Article Processing Charges.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/iji/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: