Chronic bacterial infections may also add to this inflammatory state.

The inflammatory response to bisphosphonates or fluctuations in calcium blood levels have been suggested as possible mechanisms.

Fitting with an immunological explanation, the inflammatory process is caused by T cells, a kind of lymphocyte that plays an important role in the body's defenses.

Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) is an inflammatory state affecting the whole body, frequently a response of the immune system to infection, but not necessarily so.

For example, in immunology many cytokines are pluripotent, in that each of these compounds can activate specific behavior in some cell types and inhibit other behavior in other cell types.

Starting in the 1990 s, cytokines, drugs that stimulate bone marrow to produce infection fighting white blood cells, began to be integrated into cancer treatments, further mitigating the risk of life threatening infectious complications of care.

However, available data clearly show that, under some conditions, nanotubes can cross membrane barriers, which suggests that, if raw materials reach the organs, they can induce harmful effects such as inflammatory and fibrotic reactions.

If the CD4 count rapidly increases (due to effective treatment of HIV, or removal of other causes of immunosuppression), a sudden increase in the inflammatory response produces nonspecific symptoms such as fever, and in some cases a worsening of damage to the infected tissue.