Cellular and molecular biology of interleukin 1 and tumour necrosis factor.
Cytokines are a family of signalling molecules with a pivotal role in cell-cell interactions.
They include the interleukins, tumour necrosis factors, colony stimulating factors and growth factors. Both are considered key mediators of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and understanding their mechanism of action is providing novel strategies for use in the development of anti-inflammatory drugs. This receptor superfamily would therefore appear to be determining for the host response to infection and the inflammatory response, and is likely to be a critical participant in inflammatory diseases. How cell activators such as cytokines cause a change in gene expression involves transcription factors such as NFkappaB, which has an important role in the induction of several IL1 -responsive genes. The mechanism of activation of NFkappaB is under investigation in lymphocytes, endothelial, glial and neuronal cells, using such stimuli as IL1, TNF, hydrogen peroxide and anthracycline anti-cancer agents.