Cytokines and the brain. Bischenberg, October 11-15 1992

The congress on cytokines, held in Bischenberg (October 11-15, 1992), was marked by the quality of the presentations and a limited number of participants which helped to foster communication. Recent data on biological activities of cytokine and cytokine receptor interactions of the oldest members of this family were reported as well as the mechanisms of inhibition of their activities. Other reports highlighted the growing number of cytokines identified in the brain, their central distribution, and the relationship between peripheral and central compartments of cytokines. But this meeting was also marked by a number of reports, based on different experimental models, that the biological activities of cytokines were of physiological relevance in fever, neuropathologies and behaviour. Interesting discussions raised fundamental questions about whether cytokines could be considered as neurotrophic factors, the role of the blood brain barrier and the signals regulating transmission between the immune and nervous systems. The implication of cytokines in central functions reinforces the concept of a central immune response encompassing soluble and cellular interactions between cerebral cells themselves and between cerebral and immune cells.