Abstract
The eastern woodchuck, Marmota monax, represents a useful animal model to study hepatitis B virus infection in humans. However, immunological studies in this model have been impeded by a lack of basic information about the components of the immune system such as cytokines and chemokines. To clarify the role(s) of interleukin 8 (IL-8) in chronic hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the woodchuck model, we cloned and characterized the woodchuck IL-8 cDNA and genomic DNA. Sequence analysis revealed that the organization of the wk-IL-8 gene is similar to that of the human IL-8 gene and consists of four exons and three introns. Woodchuck IL-8 protein exhibits the conserved ELRCXC motif of IL-8 and shows 87, 82, 82 and 79% similarity with rabbit, ovine, bovine and human IL-8 proteins, respectively. The biological activity of wk-IL-8 was demonstrated using neutrophil chemotaxis assays. Wk-IL-8 could be readily detected in both tumor and non-tumor tissues with higher expression in the non-tumor tissues in most cases. The results from this study will facilitate the investigation of IL-8 in the immunopathogenesis of hepadnavirus-related diseases by the woodchuck model.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Drs Betty A Wu-Hsieh, Chung-Yi Hu and Fang Liao for helpful suggestions and discussions on neutrophil chemotaxis assay. We also thank Miss Hui-Chu Tu and Miss Hsiu-Li Chou for their excellent technical assistance.
This research was supported by funds from the National Research Program for Genomic Medicine of National Science Council (Grant NSC 96-3112-B-002-009), National Taiwan University (Grant 95R0066-BM02-04) and National Taiwan University Hospital (Grant NTUH.97A10).
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Liu, CJ., Huang, YJ., Chen, HL. et al. Characterization of interleukin 8 in woodchucks with chronic hepatitis B and hepatocellular carcinoma. Genes Immun 10, 27–36 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2008.86
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2008.86
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