Macrophage inflammatory protein 2 (MIP-2)

A method for preparing an inflammatory cytokine comprising:

• A. gathering a sample of cells from a mammal;
• B. incubating a portion of said cells with a stimulator material associated with an invasive event for a mammal;
• C. inducing said cells to produce said inflammatory cytokine;
• and
• D. isolating said inflammatory cytokine from a supernatant harvested form the mass of said cells, which inflammatory cytokine is isolated on the basis of eluting from a heparin affinity column in a 0-2M NaCl gradient at 0.7M NaCl having an apparent molecular mass of approximately 6000 Daltons by SDS-PAGE, and fractionates from a gel filtration column with an apparent molecular mass of approximately 10,000 Daltons being cationic under physiological conditions, inducing localized inflammation characterized by polymorphonuclear cell infiltration when administered subcutaneously and having potent in vitro chemotactic activity while inducing little or no in vitro chemokinesis in polymorphonuclear cells, while lacking the ability to suppress the activity of the anabolic enzyme lipoprotein lipase, cause the cytotoxicity of cachectin/TNF-sensitive cells, stimulate the blastogenesis of endotoxin-resistant C3H/HeJ thymocytes, or induce the production of cachectin/TNF by primary thioglycollate-elicited mouse macrophage cells.