Chemokine networks

Kulbe H, Levinson NR, Balkwill F, et al. (2004) The chemokine network in cancer -much more than directing cell movement. Int J Dev Biol 48 489-496... 

The role that chemokines play in the localization of blood or lymphatic-borne-T lymphocytes near lymph nodes is incompletely understood. Transgenic mice that lack expression of specific chemokines have not been illustrative, suggesting that the process is the result of stimulation by multiple chemokines with overlapping receptor affinity or that the essential chemokine-receptor complex has not yet been identified. Ligand and receptor redundancy is common in chemokine networks. However, after the T lymphocyte has responded to the complex array of chemotactic signals and arrived at the lymph node, the events by which it migrates through the endothelium into the lymph node itself are well characterized. 

Despite the effort, there remains a paucity of data on the role of chemokines in the lung parenchyma and in lymph nodes of the lung. Although much is known about what cells are affected by chemokines, little is known about the origin of the chemokines. Clearly, an enormous amount of work remains to be done to better characterize the complex chemokine network of the lung and its secondary lymphoid organs. 

CMV infection rarely causes overt disease in immunocompetent individuals. Even in immuncompromised patients, active viral replication does not necessarily result in end-organ disease. Factors that tilt the balance between active virus replication and CMV disease are not known. It is most likely that CMV utilizes the chemokine network to propel infected cells into an environment conducive for replication, persistence, or latency. Once there, viral modulation of chemokines could assist in avoiding immune detection of the infected cell at that site. 

Balkwill, F. (2004) Cancer and the chemokine network. Nature Reviews. Cancer, 4, 540-550. 

Nickoloff B.J. etal. (2007) The cytokine and chemokine network in psoriasis. Clinics in Dermatology, 25, 568-573. 

Because of the role that chemokines play in controlling the infiltration of leukocytes into inflamed tissues, the chemokine network is considered a major target to develop... 

Chensue, S. W., Warmington, K., Ruth, J. H., Lukacs, N., and Kunkel, S. L. (1997) Mycobacterial and Schistosomal antigen-elicited granuloma formation in IFNgamma and IL-4 knockout mice. Analysis of local and regional cytokine and chemokine networks. J. Immunol. 159,3563-3573. 

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