Purification of a novel T cell-derived eosinophil chemotactic factor and its significance in allergic diseases

我们建立的T细胞系细胞（STO-2）产生五种具有不同等电点（pI-5, pI-6, pI-7， pI-8和pI-9）的嗜酸性趋化因子（ECF）。它们在嗜酸性粒细胞中表现出不同的生物学功能。我们还发现，它们中的大多数是不同于已确定的趋化因子，如eotaxin和RANTES。我们评估了嗜酸性粒细胞对上述sto -2来源的ECF的趋化反应，以嗜酸性粒细胞为特征的疾病如下所述1。木村病的嗜酸性粒细胞反应因有无皮肤症状而异。在特应性皮炎中，反应根据并发症的存在和疾病的严重程度而不同。哮喘患者的反应因病情严重程度不同而不同，尤其是类固醇治疗的需要。在嗜酸性粒细胞肺炎中，我们可以通过嗜酸性粒细胞反应的差异来鉴别急性和慢性嗜酸性粒细胞肺炎。现在，我们已经成功克隆了一种sto -2衍生的ECF，ECF- pi7，它也是在特异性抗原刺激下由T细胞产生的。我们还发现，该因子（凝集素）是半乳糖结合凝集素-9的一种变体。现就凝集素在人类变应性疾病中的生物学功能及意义进行阐述。

Our established T cell line cells (STO-2) produce five eosinophil chemotactic factors (ECF) with different isoelectric point (pI-5, pI-6, pI-7, pI-8, and pI-9). They exhibit different biological functions in eosinophils. We have also found that most of them are different factors from the identified chemotactic factors such as eotaxin and RANTES.We assessed chemotactic response of eosinophils to the above STO-2-derived ECF in patients with diseases characterized by eosinophilia as described below.1.Eosinophil response differs according to the presence or absence of dermal symptom in Kimura's disease.2.In atopic dermatitis, the response differs according to the presence of complications and disease severity.3.The response in asthmatic patients differs according to the disease severity, especially in the requirement of steroid therapy.4.In eosinophilic pneumonia, we can make differential diagnosis between acute and chronic eosinophilic pneumonia by the difference of the eosinophil response.Now, we have succeeded cDNA cloning of one of STO-2-derived ECF,ECF-pI7 which is also produced from T cells during the specific antigenic stimulation. We have also found that the factor (ecalectin) is a variant of galectin-9 that is one of galactoside-binding lectins. We are now going to clarify the biological functions and the significance of ecalectin in human allergic diseases.