Human HCC4, also named NCC4and Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 16 (CCL16) is a small cytokine belonging to the CC chemokine family that is known under several pseudonyms, including Liver-expressed chemokine (LEC) and Monotactin-1 (MTN-1). It can signal through the CCR8 and CCR1 receptors, and it is chemotactic towards monocytes and lymphocytes but not neutrophils. HCC-4 is expressed weakly by some lymphocytes, including NK cells, T cells, and some T cell clones. The expression of HCC-4 in monocytes is greatly up-regulated in the presence of IL-10. HCC-4 induces a calcium flux in thp-1 cells that are desensitized prior to the expression of RANTES.
  Recombinant human HCC4/CCL16 produced in CHO cells is a single non-glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 97 amino acids. A fully biologically active molecule, rhHCC4/CCL16has a molecular mass of 12 kDa analyzed by reducing SDS-PAGE and is obtained by chromatographic techniques at ExCell Bio.