Molecular characterization of the interleukin-8 receptor

Recently a rabbit cDNA (F3R) was characterized as binding and causing calcium mobilization induced by the formyl-methionine-leucine-phenylalanine peptide (fMLP). In the study reported here, cloned DNAs were isolated from rabbit genomic DNA by PCR based on the sequence of F3R. The cloned DNAs have several differences in the DNA sequence compared to the reported F3R sequence that alter the predicted protein sequence. COS-7 cells transfected with these clones in a mammalian expression vector bind human IL-8 with high affinity, but do not bind fMLP. We therefore believe that the cDNAs isolated encode the rabbit IL-8 receptor.