Description
Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 21 (CCL21) is a small cytokine belonging to the CC chemokine family. This chemokine is also known as 6Ckine (because it has six conserved cysteine residues instead of the four cysteines typical to chemokines), exodus-2, and secondary lymphoid-tissue chemokine (SLC). CCL21 elicits its effects by binding to a cell surface chemokine receptor known as CCR7. In the cancer biology CCL21 seems to have multifaceted roles. CCL21 attracts CCR7 bearing cells especially T and dendritic cells but also various cancer cells. Besides the antitumour role as leukocyte recruiting, CCL21 has been shown to facilitate dendritic cell functions and to exert an angiostatic effect. Human and mouse 6Ckine are highly conserved, exhibiting 86% amino acid sequence identity