The expression of hepsin in liver

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Hepsin was originally found as a cDNA clone encoding a putative serine protease with a trypsin-like activity in a type II membrane topology. Its presence/access at the cell surface and in the intracellular microsome fraction are apparently required for growth and maintenance of morphology of cells in culture. But interestingly, hepsin-null mice showed no severely defective phenotype, indicating that it may not play any critical role in the development and at least in the early postnatal stage. To investigate the function of hepsin in liver in detail, CCl4 injection and 70% hepatectomy were proceeded. Hepsin mRNA level were decreased in both experiments on the early stage of acute inflammation and regeneration. In LEC rat, the same result was obtained in acute hepatitis stage, and also, hepsin expression in pre-cancer tissue is higher than that in cancer tissue.