The biological, biochemical, and molecular profile of leukocyte chemotactic and activating cytokine, interleukin-8

Abstract

Publisher Summary The discovery of IL-8 rapidly led to the extensive studies on related leukocyte chemotactic cytokines that exhibit cell type-specific leukocyte chemoattraction. More than 15 chemotactic cytokines have been identified so far. These cytokines possess four cysteine residues at the well conserved positions and basic heparin-binding property with a molecular mass of 8–10 kDa. Moreover, they exhibit 20–50% identity with each other in amino acid sequence and structures of genomic DNAs are well conserved among these cytokines, indicating that they constitute a supergene family. Because most of these cytokines have been shown to induce the directional migration of particular type of leukocytes, they are now termed as “chemokines.” Based on the above-mentioned pathophysiological roles of IL-8, intervention of IL-8 becomes clinically important. Accumulating evidence indicates that IL-8 gene expression is tightly controlled to regulate the neutrophil migration and activation. IL-8 gene repression is a new way to control the leukocyte infiltration, thereby alleviating inflammation. IL-8 gene repression can be accomplished by already available immunosuppressants such as glucocorticoid, cyclosporin A, and FK506.