Melanotransferrin: Search for a function

Frequency and profile of Parkinson's disease prodromi in patients with malignant melanoma

“…A possible link may be the iron-binding protein melanotransferrin that was first identified as a cell-surface marker of melanoma. Although the exact biological functions of melanotransferrin remain elusive, a growing number of roles have been attributed to the protein, including iron transport/metabolism, angiogenesis, proliferation, cellular migration and tumorigenesis 32. It has been shown recently that iron treatment of cultured pigment cells leads to upregulation of the melanogenesis genes tyrosinase, tyrosinase-related protein 1, Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome 3, premelanosome protein and dopachrome tautomerase as well as the melanogenesis-controlling transcription factor, microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) 33.…”

Evolutionary diversification of the vertebrate transferrin multi-gene family

“…The transferrins (TFs) constitute a family of single-chain glycoproteins approximately 700 amino acids in length best known for their ability to bind iron and consequent role in iron metabolism (Bowman et al 1988; Thorstensen and Romslo 1990; Sun et al 1999; Baker et al 2002; Farnaud and Evans 2003; Gomme and McCann 2005; Baker and Baker 2009; Jenssen and Hancock 2009; García-Montoya et al 2012; Giansanti et al 2012; Gkouvatsos et al 2012; Harris 2012; Mayle et al 2012; Rahmanto et al 2012). The following members of this family are recognized in humans: (1) serotransferrin (or serum transferrin), which is expressed in the liver and secreted into the blood serum, but also has a wider tissue expression and a variety of potential functions (Gkouvatsos et al 2012); (2) lactoferrin (Figure 1), named for its expression in milk but expressed in most biological fluids (Levay and Viljoen 1995; García-Montoya et al 2012); and (3) melanotransferrin, identified as a tumor antigen in melanoma but having a wide but much lower level of expression in normal tissues as well (Rahmanto et al 2012).…”

“…The following members of this family are recognized in humans: (1) serotransferrin (or serum transferrin), which is expressed in the liver and secreted into the blood serum, but also has a wider tissue expression and a variety of potential functions (Gkouvatsos et al 2012); (2) lactoferrin (Figure 1), named for its expression in milk but expressed in most biological fluids (Levay and Viljoen 1995; García-Montoya et al 2012); and (3) melanotransferrin, identified as a tumor antigen in melanoma but having a wide but much lower level of expression in normal tissues as well (Rahmanto et al 2012). Well-studied transferrin family members from non-human vertebrates include ovotransferrin, first identified from avian egg white but known to have a wider expression pattern in the domestic chicken (Giansanti et al 2012); and the inhibitor of carbonic anhydrase (ICA) reported from various non-human mammals (Wang et al 2007; Eckenroth et al 2010).…”

Melanotransferrin: New Homolog Genes and Their Differential Expression during Intestinal Regeneration in the Sea Cucumber Holothuria glaberrima

“…Further studies showed that although the protein is highly expressed in some human tumors and cell lines, particularly melanomas, it is also found in normal tissues, both embryonic and adult (Woodbury et al., ; Suryo Rahmanto et al., ). More recently, the protein has been detected in many tissues (intestine, colon, liver, pancreas, brain, kidney, sweat glands, blood, and others) of various mammal and avian species and the gene has been sequenced from fish, tunicates, echinoderms, and insects (Suryo Rahmanto et al., ; Andersen et al., ; Lambert, ; Suryo Rahmanto et al., ). Thus, it is not surprising that the holothurian MTfs are expressed in most organs studied, detected either by PCR or Western Blots.…”