Chemokines, leukocyte trafficking, and inflammation.

The relatively recent appreciation of a new class of cytokines, the chemokines, has done much to enhance our understanding of the extracellular signals involved in the movement of various populations of white blood cells. Investigation of the molecular underpinnings of chemokine function and their involvement in inflammatory processes of all kinds is beginning to yield information about the mechanisms of pathogenesis of a number of conditions, as well as providing hope for new therapeutic insights.