This antimicrobial gene belongs to the subfamily of small cytokine CC genes. Cytokines are a family of secreted proteins involved in immunoregulatory and inflammatory processes. The CC cytokines are proteins characterized by two adjacent cysteines. The protein encoded by this gene displays chemotactic activity for lymphocytes and can repress proliferation of myeloid progenitors. Two transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.