Institute for Virology, Helmholtz-Zentrum München, Munich, Germany.
Dig Dis. 2012;30(5):453-68. doi: 10.1159/000341690. Epub 2012 Oct 24.
Cytokines have been implicated in a variety of physiological processes involving lymphoid tissue development, lymphocyte activation, and control of regenerative processes such as wound healing. The first characterization of a cytokine implicated in abolishing or killing tumor cells - the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) - fostered and boosted a completely new field of research that in addition to cancer research started to generate an overwhelming amount of knowledge in immunology, various pathological processes, and other fields of research. Due to the complex networks and versatile functions of cytokines, it soon became clear that cytokines can possess diametric functions in various biological processes. As for tumor research it was shown that some cytokines - depending on the type of organ, the time of action, gender, and the cellular environment - can have either pro- or anticarcinogenic action. For those cytokines reported to be procarcinogenic, this could be accomplished by directly acting as oncogenes or generating an inflammatory environment that is procarcinogenic. Here we review a novel role for TNF family members - in particular lymphotoxin (LT) α and β - in physiology and in driving tumorigenesis, with special focus on the liver. We believe that recent findings on this particular cytokine might have strong implications for the therapy of liver cancer or other inflammation-induced cancer types.
细胞因子参与多种生理过程，包括淋巴组织发育、淋巴细胞激活以及控制再生过程，如伤口愈合。首次描述一种与消除或杀死肿瘤细胞有关的细胞因子——肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）——促进并推动了一个全新的研究领域的发展，这个领域除了癌症研究外，还开始在免疫学、各种病理过程和其他研究领域产生大量的知识。由于细胞因子的复杂网络和多功能性，很快就清楚了细胞因子在各种生物学过程中可能具有完全相反的功能。就肿瘤研究而言，已经表明某些细胞因子——取决于器官类型、作用时间、性别和细胞环境——可以在致癌或抗癌方面发挥作用。对于那些被报道具有致癌作用的细胞因子，这可以通过直接作为致癌基因或产生促癌的炎症环境来实现。在这里，我们回顾了 TNF 家族成员（特别是淋巴毒素（LT）α和β）在生理学和驱动肿瘤发生中的新作用，特别关注肝脏。我们相信，关于这种特定细胞因子的最新发现可能对肝癌或其他炎症诱导的癌症类型的治疗具有重要意义。
