발열

Abstract

Fever has been recognized as a cardinal feature of disease since antiquity, but only recently has the pathophysiology of fever come to be understood. It became clear that the ultimate cause of fever is not a bacterial product (a so-called exogenous pyrogen) but a product of host inflammatory cells (i.e., an endogenous pyrogen). Many studies have demonstrated that mononuclear phagocytes are the principal source of endogenous pyrogen and that a variety of mononuclear cell products can mediate the febrile response. Cytokines are also important as mediators of the acute-phase response to infection and inflammation.