ABSTRACT
Interferons are a family of multifunctional cytokines that play important roles in the induction of antiviral activities, inhibition of cell growth, induction of cell differentiation, and immunomodulation (for a review, see Pfeffer et al1). Interferon- (IFN-) in vitro also restores normal adhesion of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) progenitors to bone marrow stroma.2 Interferons function by inducing a group of transcriptional factors called interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) (for a review see Harada et al3). IRFs regulate the expression of interferon-stimulated genes by binding to specific DNA sequences, i.e. interferon-stimulated response elements, in promoters of the genes regulated by interferons.
