Chemokine - Definition and Overview

Chemokines are a class of chemotactic cytokines, or small secreted protein signals. Chemokines are specifically trophic molecules; that is, they signal leukocytes to move in a specific direction, up the gradient of chemokine concentration. Chemokines are divided on the basis of the protein structure according to cysteine motifs. The CxC group includes such molecules as interleukin-8 and platelet factor 4; the C C group includes such molecules as eotaxin and monocyte chemoattractant protein-3.

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See also

• Chemotaxis
• Paracrine signalling

External links

• List of chemokines and their receptors (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Search&db=books&doptcmdl=GenBookHL&term=%22chemokines%22%5BAll+Fields%5D+AND+imm%5Bbook%5D+AND+126053%5Buid%5D&rid=imm.table.2501)