MCP-2 is a member of the chemokines, a group of 70-80℃ residue proteins sharing substantial sequence similarity. Within the chemokines, MCP-2 belongs to the CC subfamily, and is a member of the Monocyte Chemoattractant Proteins (MCPs), which includes MCP-1, MCP-2, MCP-3, MCP-4, and MCP-5. MCP-2 shares 60% homology with MCP-1, and both proteins can undergo reversible dimerization. The main receptors of MCP-2 are G-protein coupled receptors CCR1 and CCR5. MCP-2 is a potential target in HIV-1 infected human glial cells as it may play a role in the modulation of viral spread in the brain. Recently, researchers found that mouse MCP-2 is expressed in the skin as a novel agonist of CCR8 and plays a role in eosinophilic inflammation.
Recombinant human MCP-2/CCL8(rhMCP-2) produced in E. coli is a single non-glycosylated polypeptide chain containing 76 amino acids. A fully biologically active molecule, rhMCP-2 has a molecular mass of 8.9kDa analyzed by reducing SDS-PAGE and is obtained by chromatographic techniques at ExCell Bio.