CYTOKINES AND GLOMERULAR INJURY

Since reports of the first data on cytokines in renal diseases about 1 0 years ago, the field has seen an explosive growth over the last deca de. It is now realized that cytokines can be synthesized by many diffe rent types of cells, including glomerular cells, upon adequate stimula tion and exert a wide range of actions mostly in an autocrine or parac rine fashion. Cytokines not only contribute to developmental processes , but also to the maintenance of normal tissue integrity and in partic ular to the initiation and modulation of tissue injury, healing, or sc arring. This review summarizes some recent data on the role of cytokin es in glomerular disease and describes some of the first experimental approaches to therapeutically interfere with cytokine actions.