Fetuin - an old friend revisited

✍ Scribed by W. M. Brown; K. M. Dziegielewska; N. R. Saunders; K. Møsllgård

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 894 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.950141105

✦ Synopsis

Bovine fetuin, the first fetal protein to he described, has recently been shown to be a species homologue of a well known human plasma protein -azHS glycoprotein (a2HS). The fetuins are now known to be members of the cystatin superfamily. The structural properties of the six fetuins that have been fully sequenced are compared. Despite the structural homology of' these proteins, their described properties in the literature make them appear to be quite different. The diverse in vitro properties claimed for fetuida2HS are reviewed. In viva, fetuins are involved in the acute phase response. In development, in all species studied so far, fetuins are present in a specific cell population that forms the developing neocortex. The possible functional significance of this distribution is discussed.