Identification of dermcidin in human gestational tissue and characterization of its proteolytic activity

The Multiple Facets of Dermcidin in Cell Survival and Host Defense

“…The processed peptides are very stable in sweat and can survive up to 11 weeks at room temperature [4,38]. This is in contradiction with a publication which suggests that an in vitro-generated recombinant dermcidin precursor protein itself has a proteolytic activity [17]. However, the observed trypsin-like proteolytic activity might be derived from the copurified recombinant enterokinases needed for the cleavage of the N -terminal tag.…”

“…Prediction analyses by FGENES or Genescan as well as expression analyses confirm the existence of only one dermcidin transcript with no splice variants [3,12,13,14,15,16]. However, one group found two alternative dermcidin splice variants with additional intronic sequences, which were found to be present in human term placenta [17]. …”

“…Other groups isolated the dermcidin-derived peptide Y-P30 from the medium of oxidatively stressed cell lines of nervous system origin as the human retinoblastoma cell line Y79 and the mouse hippocampal cell line HN33.1 [30,31]. One group found dermcidin RNA splice products in human term placental tissue [17]. Nevertheless, it remains to be clarified whether dermcidin is expressed at the protein level in parts of human brain or placenta.…”

Reply: Expression of the proteolysis-inducing factor core-peptide mRNA is upregulated in both tumour and adjacent normal tissue in gastrooesophageal malignancy

“…Furthermore, evidence suggests that the YP-30/PIF-CP peptide may have a role in development, acting as a maternal blood-borne factor, which promotes survival of the developing thalamus (Landgraf et al, 2005). In a recent development, there is now evidence that peptide products of the dermcidin gene may participate in the regulation of placental function by means of modulating proteolytic cascades on the trophoblastic surface (Motoyama et al, 2007) and having proteolytic activity. Therefore, while EA Rapoport's suggestion may be unlikely in the light of present evidence, there is still much to be discovered about this fascinating gene and its products.…”

The Natural Antimicrobial Chromogranins/Secretogranins- Derived Peptides – Production, Lytic Activity and Processing by Bacterial Proteases

“…Dermcidin precursor was also found in human gestational tissue (Lee Motoyama et al, 2007), where it is proposed to play a role in pregnancy by regulating trophoblastic functions.…”