Protein inhibitors of cysteine proteinases. II. Primary structure of stefin, a cytosolic protein inhibitor of cysteine proteinases from human polymorphonuclear granulocytes.

The primary structure of stefin, a new cysteine proteinase inhibitor from the cytosol of human polymorphonuclear granulocytes, was determined by amino-acid sequence analysis. The protein consists of 98 amino-acid residues and contains no cysteine. Its molecular mass was calculated to be 11006 Da. The sequence was obtained by automatic solid-phase Edman degradation of the uncleaved protein and its cyanogen bromide fragments. There is no striking evidence for a sequence homology with known families of protein inhibitors of proteinases.