Murine Eotaxin: An Eosinophil Chemoattractant Inducible in Endothelial Cells and in Interleukin 4-Induced Tumor Suppression

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 92; no. 19; pp. 8960 - 8964
• Main Authors: Rothenberg, Marc E., Luster, Andrew D., Leder, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 12.09.1995; National Acad Sciences; National Academy of Sciences
• Subjects: Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; Base Sequence; Cell lines; Chemokine CCL11; Chemokines; Chemokines, CC; Chemotactic Factors, Eosinophil - biosynthesis; Chemotactic Factors, Eosinophil - genetics; Chemotactic Factors, Eosinophil - pharmacology; Chemotaxis, Leukocyte; Chromosome Mapping; Complementary DNA; COS cells; Cytokines - genetics; Cytokines - pharmacology; DNA, Complementary - genetics; Endothelial cells; Endothelium - metabolism; Eosinophils; Gene Expression Regulation; Genes; Immunity (Disease); Interleukin-4 - pharmacology; Mast cells; Medical research; Messenger RNA; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Neoplasms, Experimental - metabolism; RNA, Messenger - analysis; Rodents; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Tumors
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.92.19.8960

Guinea pig eotaxin is a recently described member of the Cys-Cys family of chemokines and is involved in a guinea pig model of asthma. To determine whether eotaxin is a distinctive member of this family and to under-stand its physiologic role, we have cloned the mouse eotaxin gene and determined its structure and aspects of its biologic function. The sequence relationship between the mouse and guinea pig genes indicates that eotaxin is indeed a distinct member of the chemokine family. Moreover, murine eotaxin maps to a region of mouse chromosome 11 that encodes other Cys-Cys chemokines. In addition, recombinant murine eotaxin protein has direct chemoattractant properties for eosinophils. The eotaxin gene is widely (but not ubiquitously) expressed in normal mice and is strongly induced in cultured endothelial cells in response to interferon γ. Eotaxin is also induced locally in response to the transplantation of interleukin 4-secreting tumor cells, indicating that it likely contributes to the eosinophil recruitment and antitumor effect of interleukin 4. Such responses suggest that eotaxin may be involved in multiple inflammatory states.