Basic science for the clinician 34: Interleukins of current clinical relevance (part II).
As you saw in the first part of this description of interleukins, normal orchestration of wound healing, the protective immune response and inflammation involves many cells that must effectively communicate with each other. The means of this communication is often soluble messengers (cytokine) and many of them bear the title interleukin. Although all these messengers have a role in normal immune homeostasis, it is apparent that many are involved in tissue damage in a variety of disease, eg, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis. I dealt with interleukins (IL) 3 to 16 in the first part of this project. We now pick up the story with IL-17. Turns out, much of the most exciting recent work in rheumatology has focused on IL-17 and IL-18. The disparate effects of the interleukins may be confusing, often a single cytokine producing multiple effects seemingly at crossed purposes, but we are in our infancy when it comes to insights into the molecular biology of normal immune function, homeostasis, inflammation, and disease.
Sigal
Leonard H
LH
Pharmaceutical Research Institute/Bristol-Myers Squibb, J. 3100, PO Box 4000, Princeton, NJ 08543-4000, USA. leonard.sigal@bms.com
D006801:Humans; D007378:Interleukins / Q000502:physiology*; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000276:immunology*; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000502:physiology
D007378:Interleukins; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta