Receptors for extracellular nucleotides: sensors for danger signals in the immune system

摘要

There is increasing awareness that inflammation is started by the release of endogenous factors that signal the presence of pathogens or tissue damage. Such factors are thought to originate from stressed host cells. If this is so, then immune cells must express plasma membrane receptors devised to sense danger. Recent results have led to the identification of some of these receptors and their ligands.