Purpose of review: Acute pancreatitis is a major cause of gastrointestinal morbidity for which specific therapy is greatly needed to prevent progression to and induce resolution of severe disease.
Recent findings: Innate immune components and metabolite signaling are recently identified as strong determinants of disease severity and resolution in acute pancreatitis and this work will be discussed herein.
Summary: Targeting innate immune cell populations and metabolite signaling pathways in acute pancreatitis may result in broader and ultimately more efficacious re-direction of the inflammatory programme toward disease resolution and improved clinical outcomes.