Vol.26 No.4（2004 August）：327-330

Cell DNA Damage Checkpoint

Xiao-Jing Yu^1,2, Jia-Wei Zhou¹*, Chong-Gang Yuan²*

（¹Key Laboratory of Proteomics, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; ²School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China）

Abstract: Tissue transglutaminase (tTG) is one of members of transglutaminase family. It is believed to be a multifunctional protein, which can catalyze cross-linking of protein and hydrolyzation of GTP and ATP. Furthermore, tTG can function as G_ah in Ca²⁺-associated signal pathway. It has been reported that tTG is involved in a broad range of biological processes such as cell growth and differentiation, receptor-mediated endocytosis, cell adhesion, maintenance of cell morphology and inducement of apoptosis. Recently, it has been suggested that tTG may play important roles in pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease. Some recent progress on the involvement of tTG in these diseases will be presented in this review.

Key words: tissue transglutaminase (tTG); biological function; neurodegenerative diseases

*Corresponding author. Jia-Wei Zhou: Tel: 86-21-54921073, Fax: 86-21-54921073, E-mail: jwzhou@sibs.ac.cn and Chong-Gang Yuan: Tel: 86-21-62232729, Fax: 86-21-62233754, E-mail: cgyuan@bio.ecnu.edu.cn