Chronic myositis "Myositis" defines illnesses that involve chronic, or persistent, muscle inflammation. Myositis refers to several different illnesses, including polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and inclusion body myositis.  In most cases chronic muscle inflammation results in muscle weakness,  lack of contractability - leading to movement disablities, degeneration of muscle fibres, inflammation of peripheral nerves as well as muscle swelling and muscle pain. Myositis can affect many parts of the body. Sometimes the joints, heart, lungs, intestines, and skin can become inflamed. 

Many such conditions are considered likely to be caused by autoimmune conditions, rather than directly due to infection, although autoimmune conditions can be activated or exacerbated by infections. Myositis is also a documented side effect of the lipid-lowering drugs statins and fibrates.

We have generated various models of muscle inflammation (e.g. in skeletal muscle; heart) and currently apply those together with analysis of human specimens (e.g. cryo-frozen human muscle tissue) to better understand the mechanisms driving chronic inflammation induced tissue damage in the muscle.