Catch-and-release of cytokines converts transient exposure into long-term inflammatory responses. Mus musculus

We report that after cancer cells are exposed to a transient pulse (5h) of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IFNγ, they continue up-regulating genes in the antigen presentation pathway for days after abrogation of the original signal. We discovered that a new mechanism of cell-to-cell communication, cytokine catch-and-release, explains this surprising result. Overall design: Examination of IFNγ-induced gene expression over multiple timepoints in mouse melanoma cells