HCC-4/CCL16

Hedrick J.A.

HCC-4 (hemofiltrate CC chemokine-4) (Hedrick et aL, 1998), also commonly known as LEC (liver-expressed chemokine), belongs to a group of macrophage inflammatory protein (MlP)-related 0 chemokines and is most similar (38% identity) to HCC-1. HCC-4 is reported to be chemotactic for both monocytes and lymphocytes (Hedrick et aL, 1998, Youn et aL, 1998), but is less potent than most other chemokines. More recently Howard et aL (2000) reported HCC-4 to be effective in generating cell adhesion, with a potency comparable to RANTES in the assay employed. This suggests that regulation of adhesion may, in fact, be the primary biologic function of HCC-4 (Howard et aL, 2000). Cross-desensitization experiments have shown that HCC-4 shares at least one receptor with RANTES (Hedrick et aL, 1998) and more recently HCC-4 has been reported to interact with two receptors, CCR1 and CCR8 (Howard et aL, 2000). The expression pattern of HCC-4 at the level of mRNA includes the liver, but other sites are controversial, as discussed below.