Galectin 9B (GAL9B)

GAL9B was initially thought to represent a pseudogene of galectin 9; however, this transcript has good exon-intron structure and encodes a predicted protein of the same size as and highly similar to galectin 9. This gene is one of two similar loci on chromosome 17p similar to galectin 9 and now thought to be protein-encoding. This gene is the more centromeric gene. Galectin-9 (Gal-9) is a member of animal lectins that have an affinity to beta-galactosides. Gal-9 was first cloned from tumor tissues of Hodgkin’s disease that is frequently characterized by eosinophilia. Galectins exhibit various biological functions, such as cell aggregation and adhesion, proliferation,cell death, modulation of inflammation and metastasis.First, Gal-9/ecalectin was identified as a potent T cellderived eosinophil chemoattractant (ECA).