Communication between cells determines the steady-state composition of the lung in health and becomes a critical determinant of outcome in pathologic processes resulting in anatomic remodeling. This review presents the evolving concepts of the biology of cytokines (also known as peptide growth factors or biological response modifiers) in maintaining normal tissue growth and homeostasis. How these extracellular signaling proteins are involved in such pathologic disorders as spontaneous pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, pneumoconiosis, and the evolution and recovery from acute lung injury is also discussed. During the past decade the cytokines have come to the fore as important multifunctional mediators of cell behavior and cell-cell communication. A wide range of cellular responses are influenced or triggered when cytokines interact with cells. These include mitosis, chemotaxis, angiogenesis, cytoskeleton arrangement, immunomodulation, and extracellular matrix production. Cytokines influence cell behavior by binding to specific high affinity surface receptors on target cells. These receptors are linked in turn at the cell membrane to a complex array of intracellular signaling pathways. Individual cytokines may inhibit as well as promote cellular functions such as mitosis and thereby play a critical role in homeostasis of normal tissue elements. Hence, cytokines are intimately involved in normal tissue homeostasis as well as in processes eventuating in growth and remodeling. All cells produce and secrete cytokines at some time during their life. Each cytokine is capable of modulating more than one cellular function. Although produced by a variety of cell types, the triggers that induce a specific cytokine to be produced differ between cells. Many of the cytokines share regions of homologous nucleic acid sequences, suggesting that they are members of larger gene families. Given that tissues and cells are exposed to complex cytokine mixtures rather than to individual cytokines, recent attention has turned to understanding how cytokines interact. The combined effects of cytokine mixtures have proved to be both complex and unpredictable based on knowledge of the separate actions of the individual cytokines involved. In studies of the role of cytokines in lung disease, early research attention has focused on those cytokines released by alveolar macrophages (the so-called macrophage-derived growth factors). However, structural cells as well as immune effector cells of the lung are capable of cytokine production and release. The cytokines receiving the most attention to date in relation to pulmonary diseases include platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), interleukin-1 (IL-1), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), insulinlike growth factor I (IGF-I), and, most recently, interleukin-6 (IL-6).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)