Foreword

Abstract

of Gastroenterology and a great number of Brazilian research financing agencies, pharmaceutical companies, Brazilian official banks and companies. The conference gathered 480 participants including 35 invited speakers working at the frontier of this field, researchers, clinicians, representatives from industry, post-doctoral fellows and students. Two hundred and ninety posters were presented by international scientists, including many young Brazilian, British, Canadian and Hungarian researchers. The 15 best posters were selected by an international scientific committee and awarded prizes at the end of the meeting.This conference was devoted to novel aspects of basic science and pharmacology of inflammation, therapeutic potential of new compounds, including the mechanism of action of glucocorticoids and the anti-inflammatory properties of NO-aspirin type compounds, modulation of allergic inflammation, chemotactic factors, NO as a modulator of proliferation and mechanisms of pain sensation and treatment of pulmonary inflammation, mechanisms, and mediators of allergic inflammation, NO and NO donors as pro-or anti-inflammatory agents, mediators that regulate the resolution of inflammation, microbial-epithelial interactions as they pertain to inflammation, protease-activated-receptors pain, and inflammatory signaling.We believe that the 37 papers and reviews published in these Proceedings give an overview of the richness and diversity of presentations and discussions that occurred at this Brazilian meeting, reflect the state-of-the-art of investigations involving NO, Cytokines and Inflammation around the world, and will be able to contribute significantly to the advance of knowledge in this field.