Description
IL-16 (interleukin 16), or LCF (lymphocyte chemoattractant factor), was first functionally and biochemically characterized in 1982. IL-16 is produced as a precursor protein (pro-IL16), composed of 631 residues which undergoes cleavage by caspase-3 to produce and secrete a C-terminal biologically active peptide of 121 amino acids. This gene is localized to human chromosome 15q26.3