Chemokines provide the sustained inflammatory bridge between innate and acquired immunity.

In this review we focus on the role of chemokines in discreet areas of innate immunity and demonstrate that chemokines are key participants to not only the early inflammatory response to a foreign agent, but important to the sustained immune reaction. Our studies support the concept that a concerted and interactive innate and acquired immune reaction is key for an automatic, dynamic, sustained, and regulated response toward clearing foreign stimuli. It is imperative that the in vivo concept of innate and acquired immunity be considered a continuum of a global assault on a foreign agent and not as modes, which are independent of one another.