The expression of hepsin in liver

肝素最初是作为一种编码丝氨酸蛋白酶的cDNA克隆被发现的，在II型膜拓扑结构中具有胰酶样活性。它在细胞表面和细胞内微粒组分中的存在/进入显然是细胞生长和维持培养中细胞形态所必需的。但有趣的是，肝素缺失的小鼠没有表现出严重的表型缺陷，这表明它可能不会在发育中发挥任何关键作用，至少在出生后的早期阶段。为详细研究肝素在肝脏中的作用，进行了CCl_4注射和70%肝切除。在急性炎症和再生的早期阶段，两种实验都降低了Hepsin基因的表达水平。在LEC大鼠中，急性肝炎阶段也有同样的结果，而且癌前组织中的肝素表达高于癌组织中的表达。

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.