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Nature 422, 675-676 (17 April 2003) | doi:10.1038/422675a
Immunology: Oxygen and the inflammatory cell
Carl Nathan
Abstract
The discovery that a single protein allows certain immune cells both to respond to low oxygen levels and to induce inflammation may provide a new target for drugs to treat diseases characterized by excessive inflammation.
Infected tissues, wounds, rheumatic joints, and parts of tumours that have outgrown their blood supply would seem to have little in common. Yet such sites share two features: they have lower concentrations of oxygen than healthy tissues (they are 'hypoxic'), and they are infiltrated by leukocytes, major cell types of the innate immune system.
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