[The role of chemokines such as RANTES in allergic disease]

Much attention has recently been focused on the role of allergic inflammatory reaction in asthma. Eosinophils are considered to be the major type of inflammatory cell involved in bronchial asthma, since eosinophil-specific granule proteins can damage bronchial mucosal cells. Chemokines related to the beta subfamily, the so-called platelet factor 4 (PF4) superfamily have been shown to stimulate human eosinophils or basophils, and are considered to be important mediators of inflammation. RANTES may be released from activated platelets and is considered to play an important role in various immune and allergic disorders. RANTES is a potent chemoattractant for various inflammatory cells such as eosinophils, as well as for memory T cells and monocytes, thus potentially recruiting these cells from the circulation to an inflamed focus. Involvement of eosinophils and T cells in bronchial asthma has also been reported. To extend our understanding of the participation of eosinophils, T cells, and RANTES in the pathogenesis of allergic disease, we demonstrated the important roles of chemokines such as RANTES in allergic disease.