Lymphokines

Lymphokines: A Forum for Immunoregulatory Cell Products, Volume 14, reviews the state of knowledge on lymphokines. The book opens with an integrative view of the role of lymphokines in the generation of fever. It stresses that pirogenicity is the attribute of more than one lymphokine: interleukin 1 (IL-1), interferon α, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) all possess this quality. This is followed by separate chapters on the chemistry of IL-1 molecules and cloning of the gene for human monocyte IL-1; the production of lymphokine by cells of the central nervous system; the acute phase plasma protein response studied at the level of gene structure and expression; and the involvement of calcium and calcium-linked enzymes in T cell proliferation. Subsequent chapters deal with the involvement of pteridines in T cell activation; the discovery of cachectin and the establishment of its identity with TNF; the effect of IFN-γ and several cytotoxic cytokines on the proliferation, differentiation, and function of normal and leukemic myeloid cells; and the cytotoxic lymphokines produced by effector T cells. The final chapter discusses the ways in which chemically defined changes in cell membranes affect cell division.