Many scientific articles mention early phase or later phase in classifying immune response or signalling against a pathogen. How are the early or late defined? Is any time gap strictly followed or is it based on the result obtained ?
Great answer Stephen! I would add that these terms are used alot in the memory field and, as Satheesha points out, are generally very poorly defined, so let's get working on it ;)
In signalling, early can be the time before the cell has time to make other proteins, for example cytokines that might induce later effectors.
I work on innate immune response in fishes against viral infection. In one of my experiments (in-vivo), observed rapid changes in kinetics of viral genes and host immune genes. I wished to write in my article based on the data to write early infection (3-6h), peak infection (12h - 2 d) and recovery phase (3-7d). That condition may change depending on the host and pathogen, level of infection etc. Therefore, wished to know is there any definition or guidelines to use such terminologies.