Chemokine receptors in inflammation: an overview.

Chemokine receptors play a key role in directing the migration of inflammatory cells into various injured or infected organs. However, migration of inflammatory cells into tissues can in itself be a cause and amplifier of tissue damage and disease, particularly in chronic autoimmune or allergic disorders. On this basis, much effort is currently devoted at the identification of molecular signals regulating the recruitment of inflammatory cells into tissues and at developing novel strategies to inhibit discrete pathways in this process. Great progress has recently been made in identification of a number of chemokine receptors involved in the process of leukocyte migration. The challenge is now to elucidate the specific contribution and involvement of the different receptors in distinct inflammatory processes and diseases and to prove that interference with any of these pathways may lead to development of novel therapeutics. Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science B.V.