Proinflammatory Cytokines

A general term for those immunoregulatory cytokines that favour inflammation.
The major pro-inflammatory cytokines that are responsible for early responses are:-
IL1-alpha, IL1-beta,
IL6, and
TNF-alpha.

Other pro-inflammatory mediators include:-
LIF,
IFN-gamma,
OSM,
CNTF,
TGF-beta,
GM-CSF,
IL11,
IL12,
IL17,
IL18,
IL8 and a variety of other chemokines that chemoattract inflammatory cells.

These cytokines either act as endogenous pyrogens (IL1, IL6, TNF-alpha), up-regulate the synthesis of secondary mediators and pro-inflammatory cytokines by both macrophages and mesenchymal cells (including fibroblasts, epithelial and endothelial cells), stimulate the production of acute phase proteins, or attract inflammatory cells.

The net effect of an inflammatory response is determined by the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. It should be noted that the common and clear-cut classification of cytokines as either pro anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory may be misleading. The type, duration, and also the extent of cellular activities induced by one particular cytokine can be influenced considerably by the nature of the target cells, the micro-environment of a cell, depending, for example, on the growth and activation state of the cells, the type of neighboring cells, cytokine concentrations, the presence of other cytokines, and even on the temporal sequence of several cytokines acting on the same cell.