cytokinen.

1974 S. Cohen et al. in R. T. McCluskey & S. Cohen Mechanisms Cell-Mediated Immunity xii. 354 These results all suggest that lymphokine production..represents a general biologic phenomenon... Thus, such mediator substances should be more properly called ‘cytokines’.

1988 Sci. Amer. May 41/1 It [sc. tumor necrosis factor] is one of a family of so-called cytokines: polypeptide mediators that transmit signals from one cell to another.

1994 Economist 17 Dec. 99/1 Many of those using the directed approach also plan to try to improve the T-cell response using immune-signalling molecules known as cytokines.

2007 Guardian 18 Jan. 9/1 Both the virus and the drug caused a surge of cytokines, the molecules in the blood that activate immune cells. When this ‘cytokine storm’ occurs in the lungs, body fluids and immune cells can accumulate and block the airways, quickly leading to death.

1992 Blood 80 2964/1 This cytokine network may be the final common pathway of the tissue damage associated with acute GVHD [= graft-versus-host disease], and the rapid onset of severe acute GVHD may be considered a ‘cytokine storm’.

2014 Observer 26 Oct. (New Review) 11/1 Eventually the viral load becomes too great, prompting the immune system to go into overdrive and launch an all-out attack known as a cytokine storm, which causes even more damage.

2018 P. F. Wright in J. L. Jameson et al. Princ. Internal Med. (ed. 20) v. xiii. 1384/1 Perhaps this ‘cytokine storm’ is the best explanation for the enhanced illness occurring in young, immunologically vigorous individuals in the 1918 pandemic.