Mitochondrial reactive oxygen species drive proinflammatory cytokine production.

High levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) are observed in chronic human diseases such as neurodegeneration, Crohn's disease, and cancer. In addition to the presence of oxidative stress, these diseases are also characterized by deregulated inflammatory responses, including but not limited to proinflammatory cytokine production. New work exploring the mechanisms linking ROS and inflammation find that ROS derived from mitochondria act as signal-transducing molecules that provoke the up-regulation of inflammatory cytokine subsets via distinct molecular pathways.