Description
Defensins are cationic peptides. It is an important ingredient of the innate immune system. beta-defensins are expressed on some leukocytes and epithelial surfaces. Four human beta-Defensins have been identified to date: BD-1, BD-2, BD-3 and BD-4. beta-defensins contain a six-cysteine motif, they forms three intra-molecular disulfide bonds. beta-defensins are also chemoattractant towards immature dendritic cells and memory T cells. The beta-defensin proteins are expressed as the C-terminal portion of precursors; they are released by proteolytic cleavage of a signal sequence