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Background
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C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 is also known as fusin or CD184 (cluster of differentiation 184), CXCR4, CD184, D2S201E, FB22, HM89, HSY3RR, LAP3, LCR1, LESTR, NPY3R, NPYR, NPYRL, NPYY3R or WHIM. CXCR-4 is an alpha-chemokine receptor specific for stromal-derived-factor-1 (SDF-1 also called CXCL12), a molecule endowed with potent chemotactic activity for lymphocytes. This receptor is one of several chemokine receptors that HIV isolates can use to infect CD4+ T cells. HIV isolates that use CXCR4 are traditionally known as T-cell tropic isolates. Typically, these viruses are found late in infection. It is unclear as to whether the emergence of CXCR4 using HIV is a consequence or a cause of immunodeficiency.CXCR4 is upregulated during the implantation window in natural and hormone replacement therapy cycles in the endometrium, producing, in presence of a human blastocyst, a surface polarization of the CXCR4 receptors suggesting that this receptor is implicated in the adhesion phase of human implantation. SDF-1 and CXCR4 were believed to be a relatively "monogamous" ligand-receptor pair (other chemokines tend to use several different chemokine receptors in a fairly "promiscuous" manner). Recent evidence demonstrates ubiquitin is also a natural ligand of CXCR4. Chronic exposure to THC increased T lymphocyte CXCR4 expression on both CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. Drugs that block the CXCR4 receptor appear to be capable of "mobilizing" hematopoietic stem cells into the bloodstream as peripheral blood stem cells.
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