Disease relevance of WFIKKN1

• In the present work we have expressed the second Kunitz-type protease inhibitor domain of the human protein WFIKKN in Escherichia coli, purified it by affinity chromatography on trypsin-Sepharose and its structure was characterized by CD spectroscopy [1].

High impact information on WFIKKN1

• Studies on the tissue-expression pattern of the WFIKKN gene have shown that the gene is expressed primarily in pancreas, kidney, liver, placenta, and lung [2].
• On the basis of its intriguing homologies, we suggest that the WFIKKN protein is a multivalent protease inhibitor that may control the action of multiple types of serine proteases as well as metalloproteinase(s) [2].
• The validity of our gene prediction was confirmed by sequencing a WFIKKN cDNA cloned from a lung cDNA library [2].
• Whereas the WFIKKN gene is expressed primarily in adult pancreas, liver and thymus but not in brain and ovary, significant expression of the WFIKKNRP gene is observed in ovary, testis and brain, but not in liver [3].
• In the present work we show that a gene on chromosome 17 encodes a WFIKKN-related protein (WFIKKNRP) that has the same domain organization as the WFIKKN protein [3].

Anatomical context of WFIKKN1

• Pronounced differences could also be seen in the case of fetal tissues: expression of the WFIKKN gene was highest in the lung, skeletal muscle and liver, whereas the WFIKKNRP gene was expressed primarily in brain, skeletal muscle, thymus and kidney [3].

References