title: Systems biology of IL-6, IL-12 family cytokines.
abstract: Interleukin-6-type cytokines play important roles in the communication between cells of multicellular organisms. They are involved in the regulation of complex cellular processes such as proliferation and differentiation and act as key player during inflammation and immune response. A major challenge is to understand how these complex non-linear processes are connected and regulated. Systems biology approaches are used to tackle this challenge in an iterative process of quantitative experimental and mathematical analyses. Here we review quantitative experimental studies and systems biology approaches dealing with the function of Interleukin-6-type cytokines in physiological and pathophysiological conditions. These approaches cover the analyses of signal transduction on a cellular level up to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies on a whole organism level.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany. Electronic address: anna.dittrich@ovgu.de.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dittrich
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany. Electronic address: wiebke.hessenkemper@ovgu.de.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hessenkemper
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany. Electronic address: fred.schaper@ovgu.de.
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schaper
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D018664:Interleukin-12 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology*; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: C508600:IL6 protein, human; D015850:Interleukin-6; D018664:Interleukin-12
keywords: IL-6-type cytokines; Mathematical modeling; Quantitative analyses; Systems biology