INTERFERON-ALPHA AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE CYTOKINE CASCADE - A PROINFLAMMATORY AND ANTIINFLAMMATORY CYTOKINE

Interferon-alpha (IFN alpha) has emerged as an important regulator of growth and differentiation, affect ing cellular communication and sign al transduction pathways as well as immunological control. The efficac y of IFN alpha has been demonstrated in many different diseases of vir al, malignant, angiogenic, allergic, inflammatory, and fibrotic origin . Cytokines are pleiotropic and redundant molecules showing a wide var iety of biologic functions on various tissues and cells, and several d ifferent cytokines exert similar and overlapping functions on certain cells. Data gained in the lan years support this view also for IFN alp ha. Initially thought to have mainly immunomodulating and proinflammat ory effects, recent data suggest that IFN alpha has several anti-infla mmatory properties. These newly identified ancientt inflammatory and i mmunosuppressive functions may help to explain some of the IFN mechani sms.