The first studies on expression of chemokines and their receptors in the central nervous system (CNS) appeared several years ago and since that time many papers were published increasing our knowledge in that field. Recent studies are concentrated mostly on involvement of chemokines and chemokine receptors in neurodegeneration and neuroprotection. There are evidences that chemokines may directly initiate neurodegeneration through activation of their receptors on the surface of neurons or indirectly through activation of microglia which in turn may secrete neurotoxic mediators damaging neuronal cells. There are also evidences suggesting that chemokines and chemokine receptors are also involved in neuroprotection. So far only two chemokines, CX3CL1 (fractalkine) and CXCL12 (SDF-1 – stromal cell-derived factor- 1) have been shown to be expressed constitutively in the CNS. However, expression of many chemokine receptors including CXCR2, CXCR4, CCR1, CCR3, CCR4, CCR5, CCR9/10, CX3CR1 i DARC has been detected on the surface of neuronal cell. Based on presented in this review studies it may be concluded that direct interaction between some chemokine receptors and chemokines or other chemokine receptor ligands may be important for development of neurodegeneration and/or neuroprotection. The detailed mechanisms of those processes are still not well known. This is confirmed by the high number of inconsistent results in current scientific literature so the further studies are necessary in that field.