Crystal structure of interleukin 8: Symbiosis of NMR and crystallography

The crystal structure of a host defense system chemotactic factor, interleukin 8, has been solved by molecular replacement using as a model the solution structure derived from nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. The structure was refined with 2 angstrom x-ray data to an R factor of 0.817. A comparison indicates some potential differences between the structure in solution and in the crystalline state. The analysis also predicts that residues 4 through 9 on the amino terminus and the β-bend, which includes His-33, may be important for receptor binding