| Literature DB >> 16478917 |
Barbara Bottazzi1, Antonio Bastone, Andrea Doni, Cecilia Garlanda, Sonia Valentino, Livija Deban, Virginia Maina, Alessia Cotena, Federica Moalli, Luca Vago, Antonietta Salustri, Luigina Romani, Alberto Mantovani.
Abstract
The long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is member of a complex superfamily of multifunctional proteins characterized by a cyclic multimeric structure. PTX3 is highly conserved in evolution and is produced by innate-immunity cells in response to proinflammatory signals and Toll-like receptor engagement. PTX3 plays complex, nonredundant functions in vivo, acting as a predecessor of antibodies, recognizing microbes, activating complement, facilitating pathogen recognition by phagocytes, and hence, playing a nonredundant role in resistance against selected pathogens. In addition, PTX3 is essential in female fertility by acting as a nodal point for the assembly of the cumulus oophorus hyaluronan-rich extracellular matrix. Thus, the prototypic long pentraxin PTX3 is a multifunctional, soluble pattern recognition receptor acting as a nonredundant component of the humoral arm of innate immunity and involved in matrix deposition and female fertility.Entities:
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Year: 2006 PMID： 16478917 DOI： 10.1189/jlb.1005557
Source DB: PubMed Journal: J Leukoc Biol ISSN： 0741-5400 Impact factor: 4.962