Under inflammatory conditions, CD30 expression is markedly induced. In vivo activation of CD30 can be monitored by the release of sCD30, shed from the plasma membrane upon CD30L binding (Hansen et al, 2000) . Similar to serum Trx1, serum sCD30 is increased in infection, autoimmunity and allergy, for example systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis and atopic dermatitis (Horie and Watanabe, 1998) . Both Trx1 and CD30 appear to play a role in the regulation of the antiviral inflammatory response. Both Trx1 secretion and CD30 expression have been associated with virally transformed lymphocytes. Elevated levels of sCD30 occur during viral infection. Likewise, viral infection leads to elevated Trx1 plasma levels and several studies indicate that secreted Trx1 modulates the antiviral inflammatory process (Nakamura et al, 2001b (Nakamura et al, , 2002 .