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(STO-2)产生五种不同等电点的嗜酸性粒细胞趋化因子(ECF)(PI-5、PI-6、PI-7、PI-8和PI-9)。它们在嗜酸性粒细胞中表现出不同的生物学功能。我们在以嗜酸性粒细胞增多症为特征的疾病患者中评估了嗜酸性粒细胞对上述STO-2来源的ECF的趋化反应。1.嗜酸性粒细胞的反应因木村病是否有皮肤症状而不同。2.在特应性皮炎中，反应因并发症和疾病严重程度的存在而不同。3.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要求。4.在嗜酸性肺炎中，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肺炎。现在，我们成功地克隆了STO-2来源的ECF之一，ECF-pI7，它也是在特异性抗原刺激下从T细胞产生的。我们还发现，该因子(Ecalectin)是Galectin-9的变体，Galectin-9是半乳糖苷结合凝集素之一。我们现在将阐明ecalectin在人类变态反应性疾病中的生物学功能和意义。

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.