Important publications describing the effects of cytokines in the nervous system are demanding increasing amounts of our attention these days. Consider, for example, the chemotactic cytokines or chemokines. These small proteins have been extensively studied because of their importance in regulating leukocyte migration and inflammation. Approximately 50 different chemokines have been shown to exist in higher vertebrates. These can be organized into four subfamilies based on structural considerations and, as far as we know, all their effects are transduced by a family of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).
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