Leukocyte Cell Derived Chemotaxin 2 (LECT2)

Leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin-2 is a secreted, 16 kDa protein that acts as a chemotactic factor to neutrophils and stimulates the growth of chondrocytes and osteoblasts. This protein has high sequence similarity to the chondromodulin repeat regions of the chicken myb-induced myeloid 1 protein. A polymorphism in this gene may be associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Neutrophils migrate in response to increasing concentrations of chemotactic factors released from inflammatory sites. From the culture fluid of a human T-cell leukemia cell line (SKW-3), Yamagoe et al. (1996) isolated a 16-kD secreted protein with neutrophil chemotactic activity and designated it LECT2. They purified the protein and determined the amino acid sequence.