抄録
Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) is known as a functional ligand for CC chemokine receptor 4 (CCR4), which is selectively expressed on Th2 lymphocytes and induces selective migration of the cells to allergic lesions. In this study, we cloned canine TARC cDNA from canine thymus by RT-PCR with rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) method. The canine TARC clone contained a full-length open reading frame encoding 99 amino acids and included four cysteine residues characteristic to CC chemokine family. The canine TARC cDNA showed 77.5%, 67.4%, and 68.5% amino acid sequence similarity with human, mouse and rat homologues, respectively. Expression of TARC mRNA was detected not only in thymus but also in spleen, lymph node, lung and heart of the various normal dog tissues examined. TARC cDNA clone obtained in this study will be useful for further investigation on allergic diseases in dogs.
