title: [Physiological importance of calpains in gastric mucosal defense].
abstract: The continuous and/or improper ingestion of irritants, including alcohol, NSAIDs, and Helicobacter pylori, often leads to serious gastropathies, affecting a wide range of people. A complex gastric defense system works to protect against these threats, for example by secreting mucus. Recently, by analysis of gene targeting mice for two gastrointestinal-tract-specific calpains, calpain-8 and calpain-9, we have demonstrated that they are cooperatively involved in the mucosal defense against stress-induced gastropathies. Calpains-8 and -9 are members of Ca2+ -dependent intracellular proteases comprising a superfamily in almost all eukaryotes, and form a functional complex, "G-calpain", expressed specifically in the mucus-producing cells. In this review, we show our recent results on calpains -8 and -9, and discuss gastric mucosal defense mechanisms involving them.
authors.affiliation: Calpain Project, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science.
authors.forename: Shoji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sorimachi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002154:Calpain / Q000502:physiology*; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D013276:Stomach Ulcer / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D002154:Calpain