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Human eotaxin is a specific chemoattractant for eosinophil cells and provides a new mechanism to explain tissue eosinophilia

Nature Medicine volume 2, pages 449–456 (1996)Cite this article

Abstract

Eotaxin is an eosinophil–specific chemoattractant that has been recently identified in rodent models of asthma and host response against tumors. To determine whether a similar molecule might play a role in human inflammatory diseases characterized by eosinophilia, we isolated the human eotaxin gene. We demonstrate that human eotaxin is an early response gene of cytokine–stimulated epithelial and endothelial cells, and is induced in peripheral blood eosinophils by interleukin–3. Eotaxin is directly chemotactic for eosinophils, but not mononuclear cells or neutrophils. Eotaxin messenger RNA accumulates markedly in the lesions of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), but not in the lesions of patients with diverticulitis. These results now provide a mechanism involving eotaxin to explain the eosinophil infiltration seen in a variety of human diseases; as such, an eotaxin antagonist may be a novel therapy for certain human diseases characterized by tissue eosinophilia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Infectious Disease Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 02129, USA

    Eduardo A. Garcia-Zepeda, Robert T. Ownbey & Andrew D. Luster

  2. Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 200 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Marc E. Rothenberg & Philip Leder

  3. Division of Immunology, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, USA

    Jocelyn Celestin

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  1. Eduardo A. Garcia-Zepeda
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  2. Marc E. Rothenberg
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  4. Jocelyn Celestin
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  6. Andrew D. Luster
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Garcia-Zepeda, E., Rothenberg, M., Ownbey, R. et al. Human eotaxin is a specific chemoattractant for eosinophil cells and provides a new mechanism to explain tissue eosinophilia. Nat Med 2, 449–456 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0496-449

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