On May 5, a group of Assistant Professor Tomomasa Kuroishi and Professor Shunji Sugawara in the Department of Oral Molecular Control, Graduate School of Dentistry, Tohoku University announced that the nickel-binding protein involved in the development of nickel allergy is CXCL1, a type of chemokine. Announced that it was found.

 Metal ions eluted from metal products around us cause metal allergies when they invade the living body, and induce allergic symptoms such as contact dermatitis.Of the various metals, nickel is one of the most important metals due to its high positive rate in antigenicity tests.However, since metal ions alone are too small to be recognized by the immune system, they are considered to be one of the incomplete antigens recognized by the immune system by binding to some self-molecule to form a complex.However, details such as what kind of molecule it binds to cause allergy have not been clarified.

 Previous studies have shown that lipopolysaccharide enhances nickel allergies.Therefore, the research group investigated the nickel allergy-enhancing activity in the sera of mice injected with this lipopolysaccharide.As a result, it was found that even a low-concentration nickel solution that does not cause ear swelling by itself induces ear swelling when mixed with serum.Therefore, when the protein in serum was purified using "activity to induce swelling of the ear" as an index, it was found that this activity was contained in the fraction containing the nickel-binding protein.As a result of mass spectrometric analysis of the protein specifically contained in this fraction, it was found to be CXCL1, which is one of the chemokines.

 CXCL4 is a protein discovered over 60 years ago, but its association with metal allergies was unknown.This study was the first in the world to report nickel ion binding and nickel allergy-enhancing activity.

Paper information: [Clinical & Experimental Allergy] CXCL4 is a novel nickel-binding protein and augments nickel allergy

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