Cytokines bind with target cells bearing specific cytokine receptors.
Essential to maintaining homeostasis and the basic integrity of organisms, cytokines may also hold the key to autoimmune and allergic diseases as well as providing a new focus for therapeutic approaches. Our laboratory has been active at identifying the role of cytokines in cutaneous inflammatory and neoplastic diseases. Recently we have utilized transgenic gene-targeted mutant mice to identify crucial molecules involved in these reactions. Our work has involved identifying the interactions between cytokines and their target cells, in particular focusing on how antigen presenting cells and inflammatory cells are directed to the site of injury and the cytokine cascade involved in more general inflammatory and immune response. J Invest Dermatol.