Journal of Leukocyte Biology
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Originally published online as doi:10.1189/jlb.0208140 on July 18, 2008

Published online before print July 18, 2008
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(Journal of Leukocyte Biology. 2008;84:1238-1247.)
© 2008 by Society for Leukocyte Biology

Serpins in T cell immunity

Michael Bots1 and Jan Paul Medema

Laboratory of Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology, Center for Experimental and Molecular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1 Correspondence at current address: Gene Regulation Laboratory, Cancer Immunology Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, St Andrews Place, East Melbourne 3002, Victoria, Australia. E-mail: michael.bots{at}petermac.org

Serine protease inhibitors (serpins) are a family of proteins that are important in the regulation of several biological processes. This mainly involves the inhibition of serine proteases, although some serpins inhibit a different class of proteases or even function without inhibitory activity. In contrast to other protease inhibitor families, serpins inhibit their target proteases by a specific mechanism, which depends on a change in conformation. This review primarily focuses on one subgroup of serpins—ovalbumin (ov)-serpins. Different than most members of the family, this group of serpins lacks secretion signal sequences and therefore, mainly functions intracellularly. In addition to expression in most normal tissues, ov-serpins can be found in multiple different cells of the immune system. Interestingly, expression of ov-serpins in these cells is tightly regulated, indicating a role for these serpins in the regulation of immune responses. The role of serpins in the immune response will be the topic of this review.

Key Words: granzyme • apoptosis






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