Inflammation and immune dysregulation following burns, trauma, or acute infections frequently lead to organ failure and death. Although frequently unrelated to sepsis, the inflammatory response triggers alterations in organ function, impacting pathophysiologic responses such as the acute phase response or insulin sensitivity. Recent studies characterizing or modulating the postcritical illness inflammatory response may allow prediction of patient outcome or assessment of likelihood of success for a particular therapeutic. In this volume, we would like to address the pathophysiology of injury and infection by providing an overview of inflammation induced by critical illness.

We are particularly interested in manuscripts that report modulation of the immune or inflammatory response to improve patient outcome, discuss pathophysiology of injury- or infection- induced inflammation, or improve assessment of immune status of the critically ill. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Induction of inflammation following injury or infection
• Organ-specific or systemic inflammation
• Relationship between inflammation and disease severity
• Effects of “double-hits” on outcomes (e.g., aging, obesity, preexisting conditions, and polytrauma)
• Genetic variation and the inflammatory response
• Preclinical and clinical studies
• Molecular studies that delineate the role of discrete signaling pathways
• Biomarkers and outcome prediction

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/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: