title: Cytokines and pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cytokines are necessary for the inflammatory response, favoring proper wound healing. However, exaggerated proinflammatory cytokine production can manifest systemically as hemodynamic instability or metabolic derangements. The objective of this review was to describe the effects of cytokines in pain.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  This article reviews the effects of cytokines in pain. In diseases with acute or chronic inflammation, cytokines can be recognized by neurons and used to trigger several cell reactions that influence the activity, proliferation, and survival of immune cells, as well as the production and activity of other cytokines. Cytokines can be proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory. Proinflammatory cytokines are related with the pathophysiology of pain syndromes. Cells that secrete proinflammatory (IL-1, IL-2, IL-6, IL-7, and TNF) and anti-inflammatory (IL-4, IL-10, IL-13, and TGFβ) cytokines, the functions of each cytokine, and the action of those compounds on pain processing, have been described.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cytokines have an important role in pain through different mechanisms in several sites of pain transmission pathways.
authors.affiliation: Disciplina de Anestesiologia, Dor e Terapia Intensiva of Escola Paulista de Medicina da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (EPM/UNIFESP), SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Caio Marcio Barros
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.forename: Rioko Kimiko
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Sakata
authors.forename: Adriana Machado
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Issy
authors.forename: Luis Roberto
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Gerola
authors.forename: Reynaldo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salomão
mesh_terms: D016207:Cytokines / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007378:Interleukins / Q000502:physiology; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000502:physiology; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D007378:Interleukins