protein_function: Inhibits hemopoiesis and stimulates chemotaxis.Chemotactic in vitro for thymocytes and activated T-cells, but notfor B-cells, macrophages, or neutrophils. Shows preferentialactivity towards naive T-cells. May play a role in mediatinghoming of lymphocytes to secondary lymphoid organs. Binds toatypical chemokine receptor ACKR4 and mediates the recruitment ofbeta-arrestin (ARRB1,2) to ACKR4.
Chemokine(C-C motif) ligand 21(CCL21) is a small cytokine belonging to the CC chemokine family. This chemokine is also known as 6Ckine(because it has six conserved cysteine residues instead of the four cysteines typical to chemokines), exodus-2, and secondary lymphoid-tissue chemokine(SLC). By somatic cell hybrid and radiation hybrid analyses, mapped the SCYA21 gene to 9p13. Chemokines are a family of proteins that direct leukocyte migration and activation to inflammatory stimuli. CXC chemokine ligand 13(CXCL13), CC chemokine ligand 21(CCL21), and CCL19 are constitutively expressed in secondary lymphoid organs, where they control the placement of lymphocytes and dendritic cells. It was demonstrate that the local expression of homeostatic chemokines in nonlymphoid organs, such as the lung, plays an important role in protective immune responses.
