CD24
Encyclopedia
Signal transducer CD24 also known as cluster of differentiation 24 or heat stable antigen CD24 (HSA) is a protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 that in humans is encoded by the CD24 gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

. CD24 is a cell adhesion molecule
Cell adhesion molecule
Cell Adhesion Molecules are proteins located on the cell surface involved with the binding with other cells or with the extracellular matrix in the process called cell adhesion....

.

Function

CD24 is a glycoprotein
Glycoprotein
Glycoproteins are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to polypeptide side-chains. The carbohydrate is attached to the protein in a cotranslational or posttranslational modification. This process is known as glycosylation. In proteins that have segments extending...

 expressed at the surface of most B lymphocytes and differentiating neuroblast
Neuroblast
A neuroblast is a dividing cell that will develop into neurons or glia. The characterisation of neuroblasts and their development in Drosophila melanogaster was widely achieved by Chris Doe, Corey Goodman and Mike Bate. In humans, neuroblasts produced by stem cells in the adult subventricular zone...

s. This gene encodes a sialoglycoprotein
Sialoglycoprotein
A sialoglycoprotein is a combination of sialic acid and glycoprotein, which is, itself, a combination of sugar and protein.Glycophorin C is one common sialoglycoprotein....

 that is expressed on mature granulocyte
Granulocyte
Granulocytes are a category of white blood cells characterized by the presence of granules in their cytoplasm. They are also called polymorphonuclear leukocytes because of the varying shapes of the nucleus, which is usually lobed into three segments...

s and in many B cell
B cell
B cells are lymphocytes that play a large role in the humoral immune response . The principal functions of B cells are to make antibodies against antigens, perform the role of antigen-presenting cells and eventually develop into memory B cells after activation by antigen interaction...

s. The encoded protein is anchored via a glycosyl phosphatidylinositol (GPI) link to the cell surface. An alignment of this gene's sequence finds genomic locations with similarity on chromosomes 3p26, 15q21, 15q22, 20q11.2 and Yq11.1. Whether transcription, and corresponding translation, occurs at each of these other genomic locations needs to be experimentally determined (source: NCBI).

External links

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