Cytokine
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of various small regulatory proteins that regulate the cells of the immune system.
"Thus, in the case of viral infection, mechanisms of resistance would be threefold, namely, interferon production, the immune response, including both antibody and lymphokine production, and the generation of lymphokine-like substances by the infected cells themselves. These latter substances have been defined as cytokines."
- 2 any of various protein molecules secreted by cells of the immune system that serve to regulate the immune system wordnet
Example
More examples"Thus, in the case of viral infection, mechanisms of resistance would be threefold, namely, interferon production, the immune response, including both antibody and lymphokine production, and the generation of lymphokine-like substances by the infected cells themselves. These latter substances have been defined as cytokines."
Etymology
From cyto- + -kine from Ancient Greek κίνησις (kínēsis, “movement”).
Related phrases
More for "cytokine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.