Human CCL16, also called Liver-expressed chemokine (LEC), Monotactin-1 (MTN-1), IL-10-inducible chemokine and so on, is expressed by the CCL16 gene located on the chromosome 17 in humans. The gene encodes a 120 a.a. residue precursor protein with
a 23 a.a. residue predicted signal peptide that is cleaved to generate a 97 a.a. residue mature protein. The protein is secreted by the liver, thymus, spleen cells and showing chemotactic activity for lymphocytes and monocytes but it is distantly related to other CC chemokines, exhibiting less than 30 % sequence identity. CCL16 is highly induced by IL-10, IFN- γ and bacterial lipopolysaccharide in monmcytes and signal through CCR1, CCR2, CCR5, and CCR8.
