Description
Product Characteristics:
As a result of hemolysis, hemoglobin is found to accumulate in the kidney and is secreted in the urine. Haptoglobin captures, and combines with free plasma hemoglobin to allow hepatic recycling of heme iron and to prevent kidney damage. Haptoglobin also acts as an Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, has antibacterial activity and plays a role in modulating many aspects of the acute phase response. Hemoglobin/haptoglobin complexes are rapidely cleared by the macrophage CD163 scavenger receptor expressed on the surface of liver Kupfer cells through an endocytic lysosomal degradation pathway. Uncleaved haptoglogin, also known as zonulin, plays a role in intestinal permeability, allowing intercellular tight junction disassembly, and controlling the equilibrium between tolerance and immunity to non-self antigens.
Subcellular location: Secreted
Synonyms: BP, HPA1S, HP2ALPHA2, Haptoglobin, Zonulin, HP
Target Information: This gene encodes a preproprotein, which is processed to yield both alpha and beta chains, which subsequently combine as a tetramer to produce haptoglobin. Haptoglobin functions to bind free plasma hemoglobin, which allows degradative enzymes to gain access to the hemoglobin, while at the same time preventing loss of iron through the kidneys and protecting the kidneys from damage by hemoglobin. Mutations in this gene and/or its regulatory regions cause ahaptoglobinemia or hypohaptoglobinemia. This gene has also been linked to diabetic nephropathy, the incidence of coronary artery disease in type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, inflammatory disease behavior, primary sclerosing cholangitis, susceptibility to idiopathic Parkinson's disease, and a reduced incidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. A similar duplicated gene is located next to this gene on chromosome 16. Multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]