UTEROFERRIN - A PROTEIN IN SEARCH OF A FUNCTION
Academic Article
Overview
Research
Identity
Additional Document Info
Other
View All
Overview
abstract
Uteroferrin, a purplecolored, ironcontaining acid phosphatase, with many of the properties of a lysosomal hydrolase, transports iron from the mother to the conceptus in pregnant pigs. Uteroferrin, however, is but one member of what may be a broad class of ironcontaining phosphatases with unusual spectral properties which result from a novel type of diiron active site. The biological function of uteroferrin is unknown. We argue here that the in vivo function of uteroferrin, despite its undoubted ability to act as a potent acid phosphatase, is that of a transplacental iron transporter. Copyright 1984 Cambridge University Press