The role of cytokines as effectors of tissue destruction in autoimmunity

Abstract

Target cell damage in autoimmune disease is likely to be mediated by multiple effector pathways only some of which are cytokines. Recent progress in cell death research has dramatically changed ideas of how target cells might be destroyed and new effector pathways have been discovered. Multiple extra-cellular effector mechanisms may converge on a limited number of increasingly well-characterized intracellular cell death pathways. This increases the possibility that blockade of the damaging effects of inflammatory cytokines, cell death receptors that trigger caspase activation and noncytokine mechanisms such as the contents of the cytotoxic T cell granule may be a realistic and logical point ..