The aim of this study was to give quantitative insight into the number of cytokine molecules needed to activate a target cell and relate this to the physiological consequences of the amounts of cytokines typically detectable in humans. As a model system blood interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) was chosen since this cytokine is one of the most studied and clinically monitored cytokines, and because of the tools for the present investigations such as fully bioactive iodinated recombinant IL‐6, cellular cytokine binding assays, and bioassays have been thoroughly validated.

中文翻译：

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白细胞介素6信号仅需要几个IL-6分子：与细胞外IL-6的生理浓度的关系。

这项研究的目的是对激活靶细胞所需的细胞因子分子数量进行定量分析，并将其与通常可在人体中检测到的细胞因子数量的生理后果联系起来。作为模型系统，选择了血液白细胞介素-6（IL-6），因为该细胞因子是研究最深入和临床监测的细胞因子之一，并且由于本研究的工具，例如具有完全生物活性的碘化重组IL-6，细胞因子结合测定和生物测定已得到充分验证。