Table 1 |.

Acute inflammation versus systemic chronic inflammation

	Acute inflammation	Systemic chronic inflammation
Trigger	PAMPs (infection), DAMPs (cellular stress, trauma)	DAMPs (‘exposome’, metabolic dysfunction, tissue damage)
Duration	Short-term	Persistent, non-resolving
Magnitude	High-grade	Low-grade
Outcome(s)	Healing, trigger removal, tissue repair	Collateral damage
Age-related	No	Yes
Biomarkers	IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1β, CRP	Silent—no canonical standard biomarkers

DAMP, damage-associated molecular pattern; PAMP, pathogen-associated molecular pattern.