title: Identification of a ubiquitin family protein as a novel neutrophil chemotactic factor.
abstract: Neutrophil chemotaxis is a process that is essential for the recruitment of neutrophils to an inflamed site. In the present study, we found a remarkable increase in neutrophil chemotactic activity in the lysate of red blood cells (RBC) of mice infected with murine malaria, Plasmodium yoelii. A neutrophil chemotactic factor with an apparent molecular weight of 17 kDa (IP17) was isolated from RBC by a combination of anion-exchange chromatography on DE52 and cation-exchange chromatography on Mono S. A comprehensive GenBank database search of N-terminal amino acid sequences and MALDI-TOF mass analysis of IP17 revealed that IP17 is identical to a murine homologue of ISG15/UCRP, a member of the ubiquitin family of proteins that are inducible by interferon-beta. Recombinant mouse ISG15 showed neutrophil chemotactic activity comparable to that of natural IP17. IP17 showed specific chemotactic activity forward neutrophils and activated neutrophils to induce the release of eosinophil chemotactic factors. These results suggest that the ubiquitin family protein ISG15/UCRP has novel functions in neutrophil-mediated immune mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima 770-8502, Japan. ohashi@ias.tokushima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Owhashi
authors.forename: Yasuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taoka
authors.forename: Kazunari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Shusuke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Haruki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Hiroji
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kambara
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002630:Chemotactic Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D016207:Cytokines / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014452:Ubiquitins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D002630:Chemotactic Factors; D016207:Cytokines; C489550:G1p2 protein, mouse; D014452:Ubiquitins; C074034:ISG15 protein, human