lnterleukin - 8 and Related Chemotactic Cytokines

Marco Baggiolin i. M.D.; Bernhard Moser, and Ian Clark-Lewis I nterleukin-8 (IL-8) is the best known represemitative of’ a new class of chemsiotactic cytokines, miow called chemokines, which activate leukocytes, amid are widely studied because of their role as novel mediators of inflamnmation.’2 Two subfamiiies of chemokines are distinguished according to the arraisgemnent of the first two of four conserved cysteines, which are either separated by one amino acid (CXC chemokines) or adjacent (CC chemokines). The CXC chemokines act mainly on neutrophil heukocytes, while CC chemokines have a broader spectrum of activities amid can stimiiulate monocytes, basophils, eosinophils, and even lymphocytes.2 The genes of the two suhfamihies are clustered on different chromosomes, numnber 4 for the CXC and numnher 17 for the CC chemokines 2