CEACAM8

Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule (CEACAM) family members are a series of widely expressed proteins. They are associated with several biological functions, such as cell adhesion, migration, signal transduction and gene-expression regulations. CEACAM8 is a member of Ig superfamily. It has a glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor and showed an immunoglobulin variable-like N-terminal domain, followed by two immunoglobulin constant-like domains. CEACAM8 is exclusively expressed on human granulocytes and showed heterophilic cell adhesion properties with the closely-related CD66c molecule.
CEACAM is recognized as a granulocyte "activation marker". The expression of CEACAM8 is enhanced in vitro by incubation with activated lymphocytes or by brief incubation with IL-5. CEACAM8 is exclusively expressed on neutrophils and eosinophils and on leukocytes of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and bone marrow.
The members of the CEA family are believed to function as intercellular adhesion molecules in vitro. CEACAM8 exhibits heterophilic adhesion to the closely related molecule CEACAM6 (also referred to as NCA-50/90 and CD66c), indicating that CEACAM8 plays a role in the interaction between granulocytes or between granulocytes and epithelial cells expressing CEACAM6 in vivo. CAECAM8 has been reported to bind to galectin-3, a potent stimulus of human neutrophils, suggesting that neutrophil CEACAM8 may act as a functional galectin-3 receptor.
Entrez Gene ID: 1088
UniProt ID: P31997