CCL20

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20
250px PDB rendering based on 1m8a.
Available structures PDB Ortholog search: PDBe, RCSB List of PDB id codes 1M8A, 2HCI, 2JYO
Identifiers
Symbols	CCL20 ; CKb4; Exodus; LARC; MIP-3-alpha; MIP-3a; MIP3A; SCYA20; ST38
External IDs	OMIM: 601960 MGI: 1329031 HomoloGene: 3375 GeneCards: CCL20 Gene
Gene ontology Molecular function • protein binding • chemokine activity • CCR chemokine receptor binding Cellular component • extracellular region • extracellular space Biological process • monocyte chemotaxis • chemotaxis • inflammatory response • immune response • signal transduction • G-protein coupled receptor signaling pathway • cell-cell signaling • neutrophil chemotaxis • wound healing • defense response to bacterium • positive regulation of GTPase activity • lymphocyte chemotaxis • positive regulation of interleukin-1 alpha biosynthetic process • positive regulation of nitric-oxide synthase biosynthetic process • chemokine-mediated signaling pathway • positive regulation of ERK1 and ERK2 cascade • cellular response to lipopolysaccharide • cellular response to lipoteichoic acid • cellular response to interferon-gamma • cellular response to interleukin-1 • cellular response to tumor necrosis factor • positive regulation of T cell migration Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
RNA expression pattern
File:PBB GE CCL20 205476 at tn.png
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	6364	20297
Ensembl	ENSG00000115009	ENSMUSG00000026166
UniProt	P78556	O89093
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_001130046	NM_001159738
RefSeq (protein)	NP_001123518	NP_001153210
Location (UCSC)	Chr 2: 227.81 – 227.82 Mb	Chr 1: 83.12 – 83.12 Mb
PubMed search	[1]	[2]

Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL20) or liver activation regulated chemokine (LARC) or Macrophage Inflammatory Protein-3 (MIP3A) is a small cytokine belonging to the CC chemokine family. It is strongly chemotactic for lymphocytes and weakly attracts neutrophils. CCL20 is implicated in the formation and function of mucosal lymphoid tissues via chemoattraction of lymphocytes and dendritic cells towards the epithelial cells surrounding these tissues. CCL20 elicits its effects on its target cells by binding and activating the chemokine receptor CCR6.

Gene expression of CCL20 can be induced by microbial factors such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor and interferon-γ, and down-regulated by IL-10. CCL20 is expressed in several tissues with highest expression observed in peripheral blood lymphocytes, lymph nodes, liver, appendix, and fetal lung and lower levels in thymus, testis, prostate and gut. The gene for CCL20 (scya20) is located on chromosome 2 in humans.

Recent research in an animal model of multiple sclerosis known as experimental autoimmune encephalitis (EAE) demonstrated that regional neural activation can create "gates" for pathogenic CD4+ T cells to enter the CNS by increasing CCL20 expression, especially at L5. Sensory nerve stimulation, elicited by using muscles in the leg or electrical stimulation as in Arima et al., 2012, activates sympathetic neurons whose axons run through the dorsal root ganglia containing cell bodies of the stimulated afferent sensory nerve. Sympathetic neuronal activity activates IL-6 amplifier resulting in increased regional CCL20 expression and subsequent pathogenic CD4+ T cell accumulation at the same spinal cord level. CCL20 expression was observed to be dependent on IL-6 amplifier activation, which is dependent on NF-κB and STAT3 activation. This research provides evidence for a critical role for CCL20 in autoimmune pathogenesis of the central nervous system.