Immune leukocytes maintain microorganisms under control in our bodies, such that only commensal microbia are tolerated in heatlhy individuals. Unfortunately, the same cells can also instigate acute inflammatory responses after several types of non-infectious signals, with devastating consequences to the cardiovascular system as seen during sepsis, myocardial infarction and stroke. Understanding what are the rules behind these acute damaging responses has been a focus of our lab. We have used imaging within living organisms to understand the basic rules of sterile inflammation. I will present our work to identify what these rules are, and the idenfitication of potential targests to improve the outcome of vascular inflammation.