Lungkine, a novel CXC chemokine, specifically expressed by lung bronchoepithelial cells

We describe a novel mouse CSC chemokine that is selectively expressed in lu ng epithelial cells and up-regulated in various lung inflammation models, A lthough this chemokine clusters with other ELR-CXC chemokines, none of them can confidently be assigned to be its human homologue based on sequence id entity, In addition, the highly restricted mRNA tissue distribution of this chemokine differentiates it from all previously described chemokines: Lung kine could not be detected in any of the 70 cDNA libraries analyzed corresp onding to specific marine cell populations and tissues. High le,els of Lung kine mRNA were specifically detected in the lung and at lower levels in fet al lung tissue by Northern blot and in situ hybridization, suggesting a pot ential role For this chemokine during Lung development. Moreover, Lungkine protein is secreted into the airway spaces and induces the in vitro and in vivo migration of neutrophils, suggesting that it is involved in lung-speci fic neutrophil trafficking, Using fluorescent in situ hybridization, we sho w that Lungkine maps to mouse chromosome 5.