The aim of the study was to compare the ability of the human Duffy antigen to bind homeostatic and inflammatory chemokines. Homeostatic chemokines did not bind to the Duffy antigen on erythrocytes with high affinity. in contrast, 60% of inflammatory chemokines bound strongly to Duffy, with no obvious preference for CXC or CC classes. It was investigated if this binding profile was reflected in the binding pattern of endothelial cells. Two examples of homeostatic (I-125-CXCL12 and I-125-CCL21) and inflammatory (I-125-CXCLS and I-125-CCL5) chemokines were incubated with human synovia. In agreement with the erythrocyte binding data, intense specific signals for CXCL8 and CCL5 binding were found on endothelial cells, whereas CXCL12 and CCL21 showed only weak binding to these cells. Our study provides evidence that the human Duffy antigen binds selected inflammatory, but not homeostatic, chemokines and that this binding pattern is reflected by endothelial cells within inflamed and non-inflamed tissue. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.