Interleukin-8 Unit Converter

Interleukin-8 (IL-8), officially designated CXCL8, is a pro-inflammatory chemokine that acts as one of the body's most potent signals for recruiting neutrophils to sites of infection or tissue injury.

It belongs to the CXC chemokine family and works by binding to two receptors on immune cells, CXCR1 and CXCR2. In healthy individuals, circulating IL-8 is very low or undetectable. Elevated levels indicate active inflammation somewhere in the body.

IL-8 rises rapidly after an inflammatory stimulus, often peaking within 1-3 hours. It has a short half-life of less than 4 hours, making it a real-time snapshot of inflammatory activity rather than a long-lasting marker.

IL-8 is produced by many cell types throughout the body, including monocytes, macrophages, epithelial cells, endothelial cells, fibroblasts, and neutrophils themselves. Production is triggered by bacterial products, other inflammatory signals (especially TNF-alpha and IL-1-beta), oxidative stress, and hypoxia.