Chemokine Ligand 26 Protein (CCL26) is a novel small Cytokine belonging to the CC Chemokine familywhich is involved in immunoregulatory and inflammatory processes. CCL26 is constitutively expressed inthymus, but only transiently expressed in phytohemagglutinin-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclearcells. It specifically binds and induces chemotaxis in T cells and elicits its effects by interacting with theChemokine Receptor CCR4. CCL26, along with Eotaxin-1 and Eotaxin-2, selectively activates the CCChemokine Receptor 3 (CCR3). The Eotaxin-3-CCR3 interaction may play an important role in allergicdiseases such as atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma. The full-length cDNA for CCL26 encodes a Proteinof 94 amino acids with a putative signal peptide of either 23 or 26 amino acid residues. Both the 71 and 68amino acid residue variants of recombinant CCL26 demonstrate equal potency in inducing chemotaxis of ahuman CCR3-transfected cell line. Unlike most other CC Chemokines, CCL26 maps to human chromosome7q11.2, within 40 kilobases of the Eotaxin-2 loci. CCL26 and Eotaxin-2 are unique in that they are the onlyChemokines identified to date that map to chromosome 7.