Eotaxin and eosinophil recruitment: implications for human disease

Eosinophils have been implicated in a broad range of diseases, notably alle rgic conditions (for example, asthma, rhinitis and atopic dermatitis) and o ther inflammatory disorders (for example, inflammatory bowel disease, eosin ophilic gastroenteritis and pneumonia). These disease states are characteri zed by an accumulation of eosinophils in tissues. Severe tissue damage ensu es as eosinophils release their highly cytotoxic granular proteins. Definin g the mechanisms that control recruitment of eosinophils to tissues is fund amental to understanding these disease processes and provides targets for n ovel drug therapy. An important discovery in this context was the identific ation of an eosinophil-specific chemoattractant, eotaxin. Over the past six years there has been intensive investigation into the biological effects o f eotaxin and its role in specific disease processes and this is the subjec t of this review.