Figure 3. A novel mechanism generating cytokine diversity.
A cytokine acts on the cells (target cell A) that express a specific receptor. With certain cytokines, such as IL-6 and CNTF, a complex composed of the cytokine and a soluble form of its receptor subunit can activate the signal-transduction pathway in cells (target cell B) that express only some of the receptor subunits and which do not respond to the cytokine alone.
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