Chemokines in transplantation: what can atypical receptors teach us about anti-inflammatory therapy?

More than 45 members of the family of chemotactic cytokines have been described. These chemokines control the migration of leukocytes throughout the whole alloimmune response from initial ischemic damage to acute inflammation and eventual resolution. Several chemokines have been strongly linked to allograft rejection. Recent studies have described powerful endogenous mechanisms that regulate chemokine biology. This review will describe a new class of chemokine receptor that bind ligands with high affinity but lack the capacity for signaling. Atypical receptors represent a new paradigm in chemokine biology and may hold the key to our eventual manipulation of chemokine-driven allograft inflammation.