Role of AIF-1 in the regulation of inflammatory activation and diverse disease processes.

Allograft Inflammatory Factor-1 (AIF-1) is a 17kDa cytoplasmic, calcium-binding, inflammation-responsive scaffold protein that is mainly expressed in immunocytes. AIF-1 influences the immune system at several key points and thus modulates inflammatory diseases. AIF-1 boosts the expression of inflammatory mediators such as cytokines, chemokines, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and promotes inflammatory cell proliferation and migration. Here we provide an overview of the different pathological processes regulated by AIF-1 mainly including allograft rejection, autoimmune diseases, central nervous system (CNS) injury, vasculopathy and cancer et al.