Cytokines are essential molecules that play crucial roles in many biological functions, including viral infection, inflammation, immunity, and hematopoiesis. Cytokines are produced by a variety of cell types in response to different stimuli. In addition, the expression of cytokine genes appears to be regulated by complex mechanism. Expression of one cytokine gene could be regulated by other cytokines. Dysregulation of cytokine gene expression may be caused by chromosomal alterations or by infection of viruses that induce activation or inactivation of the expression machinery. Therefore, expression profiling of cytokine genes could provide a useful approach to uncover the mechanism underlying their regulation. 
Signosis has developed a plate-based array for profiling 20+ Cytokine genes. By using this assay, researchers are able to compare gene expression in up to three samples on a single microtiter plate.