THE PRO-INFLAMMATORY 7-TRANSMEMBRANE SEGMENT RECEPTORS OF THE LEUKOCYTE

The past few years have witnessed the convergence of research into inflammation and research on the C protein linked receptors; the receptors encoded by this gene family recognize the ligands C5a, interleukin 8 and related chemokines, such as platelet activating factor and formyl peptide. The theme that is emerging suggests that distinct signals at the cell surface feed into common pathways of cell activation. Different agonist functions may relate to G protein heterogeneity, kinetics of activation, receptor phosphorylation, and non-selective coupling of receptors with multiple varieties of G proteins.