Courtesy of of Pierce Biotechnology
Cytokines and their kin, alternatively called interleukins, growth factors, interferons, necrosis factors, and others, are soluble messengers responsible for communication between nearby cells, especially those of hematopoietic origin. They serve multiple, often overlapping functions, from prompting the maturation of antibody-producing B cells to instigating blood vessel growth.
Not surprisingly then, cytokines function both as indicators of inflammation or disease progression and as a means of manipulating cellular responses in vivo and in vitro. As a result, the ability to detect these factors has become increasingly important to researchers and clinicians. Some scientists measure cytokines by proxy, using mRNA transcripts as a measure of immunological activity. But "mRNA really tells you about the ability to produce cytokines, rather than what's actually being produced," says Fred Finkelman of the University of Cincinnati.
So many scientists measure cytokine protein directly instead. Using as their key reagents an ever-increasing ...
