ABSTRACT
The acute phase genes represent a convenient system to study cytokine-controlled gene expression. Rat acute phase genes are particularly attractive because they offer the advantage that the inflammatory response can be provoked and controlled in living animals as well as in cultured primary hepatocytes and hepatoma cell lines. During a systemic acute phase response resulting from infection or tissue injury in the periphery, these cytokines are locally produced at sites of tissue damage by skin keratinocytes, blood vessel endothelial cells, and macrophages/monocytes. The cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor is produced by many of the same cell types that also produce interleukin-6 (IL-6), and shows striking similarities with IL-6 in its actions on a variety of target cell types and target genes.
