Description
Product Characteristics: Defensins (alpha and beta) are cationic peptides with a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity that comprise an important arm of the innate immune system. The a-defensins are distinguished from the beta-defensins by the pairing of their three disulfide bonds. To date, four human beta-defensins have been identified, BD-1, BD-2, BD-3 and BD-4. The beta-defensin proteins are expressed as the C-terminal portion of precursors and are released by proteolytic cleavage of a signal sequence. beta-defensins contain a six-cysteine motif that forms three intra-molecular disulfide bonds. beta-defensins are 3-5 kDa peptides ranging in size from 33-47 amino acid residues.
Target Information: Defensins form a family of microbicidal and cytotoxic peptides made by neutrophils. Members of the defensin family are highly similar in protein sequence. This gene encodes defensin, beta 4, an antibiotic peptide which is locally regulated by inflammation. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]