Isolation of ALP, a novel divergent murine CC chemokine with a unique carboxy terminal extension

Chemokines are a family of related proteins that regulate leukocyte infiltr ation into inflamed tissue and play important roles in many disease process es. Chemokines are divided into two major groups, CC or CXC, based on their sequence around the amino terminal cysteines, We report here, the isolatio n of a novel murine CC chemokine termed ALP for its amino terminal peptide sequence. This novel chemokine is distantly related to other CC chemokines (37% identity with murine Exodus-1/LARC/Mip-3 alpha), but has a unique carb oxy terminal extension. It is expressed preferentially in testis, heart, an d liver, which is atypical for CC chemokines, (C) 1999 Academic Press.