Lymphokine receptor interactions.

The VI International Lymphokine Workshop, focused on lymphokine receptor interactions and as expected, a large body of new information was released during this meeting. The molecular characterization of several new cytokines and preliminary characterization of their biological effects was reported and new biological activities of known cytokines were described. Important progress has been made on the molecular characterization of two cytokine receptors. Since the cytokine gene structure has been determined, the characterization of intracellular pathways controlling the expression of cytokine and cytokine receptor genes is now under way. Furthermore, several communications have demonstrated that cytokines represent potential major therapeutic agents for a wide array of diseases. Finally, the in-vivo study of human cytokines will be greatly facilitated by the development of mice reconstituted with a human immune system (scid-hu mouse).