Cytokines and glomerular injury.

Since reports of the first data on cytokines in renal diseases about 10 years ago, the field has seen an explosive growth over the last decade. It is now realized that cytokines can be synthesized by many different types of cells, including glomerular cells, upon adequate stimulation and exert a wide range of actions mostly in an autocrine or paracrine fashion. Cytokines not only contribute to developmental processes, but also to the maintenance of normal tissue integrity and in particular to the initiation and modulation of tissue injury, healing, or scarring. This review summarizes some recent data on the role of cytokines in glomerular disease and describes some of the first experimental approaches to therapeutically interfere with cytokine actions.