IUBio

Cytokines

Tom Thatcher ttha at uhura.cc.rochester.edu
Wed Apr 24 10:01:13 EST 1996


In <199604231710.NAA21954 at gort.canisius.edu> leoncem at wehle.canisius.edu ("Michelle L. Leonce") writes:

>We are currently discussing cytokines in our immunochemistry and one 
>question that came up is how does IL-6 cross the blood brain barrier. If 
>anyone can direct me to a resource for the answer, I would appreciate it. 
>Thank you.

Look under "psychneuroimmunology".  There are vascular "plexus" located
in the circumventricular areas at which the BBB is thought to be less
selective.  There is some evidence of active transport by vascular
endothelium in the case of IL-1; I'm not sure about IL-6.  Or, IL-6
may cause the vascular endothelium in the brain to release secondary
mediators, like prostaglandins, which do cross the BBB.  There is a book
called "Psychoneuroimmunology" (I think) edited by Robert Ader and Nicholas
Cohen (I think) which reviews the whole area.  There are a lot of current
research and review articles in this.  Try searching MEDLINE for blood 
brain barrier in combination with IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-alpha.


-- 
Tom Thatcher                          | You can give a PC to a Homo habilis,
University of Rochester Cancer Center | and he'll use it, but he'll use it
ttha at uhura.cc.rochester.edu           | to crack nuts.



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