Role of Eotaxin-1 (CCL11) and CC chemokine receptor 3 (CCR3) in bleomycin-induced lung injury and fibrosis.

Eotaxin-1/CCL11 and its receptor CCR3 are involved in recruitment of eosinophils to diverse tissues, but their role in eosinophil recruitment in pulmonary fibrosis is unclear. The present study examined the pulmonary expression of CCL11 and CCR3 during bleomycin (blm)-induced lung injury and determined their importance in the recruitment of inflammatory cells and the development of lung fibrosis. In mice, blm induced a marked pulmonary expression of CCL11 and CCR3. Immunostaining for CCR3 revealed that this receptor was not only expressed by eosinophils but also by neutrophils. CCL11-deficient (CCL11(-/-)) mice developed significantly reduced pulmonary fibrosis. Expression of profibrotic cytokines such as transforming growth factor-beta1 was diminished in the absence of CCL11. Furthermore, increased lung expression of CCL11 significantly enhanced blm-induced lung fibrosis and production of profibrotic cytokines. These effects were also associated with an increase of eosinophil and neutrophil pulmonary infiltration. In contrast, mice treated with neutralizing CCR3 antibodies developed significantly reduced pulmonary fibrosis, eosinophilia, neutrophilia, and expression of profibrotic cytokines. Together, these data suggest that CCL11 and CCR3 are important in the pulmonary recruitment of granulocytes and play significant pathogenic roles in blm-induced lung fibrosis.

Rhodopsin C terminus, the site of mutations causing retinal disease, regulates trafficking by binding to ADP-ribosylation factor 4 (ARF4).

The maintenance of photoreceptor cell polarity is compromised by the rhodopsin mutations causing the human disease autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa. The severe form mutations occur in the C-terminal sorting signal of rhodopsin, VXPX-COOH. Here, we report that this sorting motif binds specifically to the small GTPase ARF4, a member of the ARF family of membrane budding and protein sorting regulators. The effects of blocking ARF4 action were functionally equivalent to the effects of blocking the rhodopsin C-terminal sorting signal. ARF4 was essential for the generation of post-Golgi carriers targeted to the rod outer segments of retinal photoreceptors. Thus, the severe retinitis pigmentosa alleles that affect the rhodopsin sorting signal interfere with interactions between ARF4 and rhodopsin, leading to aberrant trafficking and initiation of retinal degeneration.