资料参考

Caspase-6 (also know as Mch2) belongs to the caspase-family of cysteine proteases. Like other caspases, caspase-6 exists in cells as an inactive proenzyme. Sequential activation of caspases plays a key role in the execution-phase of cell apoptosis. Caspases undergo proteolytic processing at conserved aspartic residues and produce two subunits, large (18 kDa) one and small (11 kDa) one. The two subunits dimerize to form the active enzyme. Active caspase-6 has been reported involving in the proteolysis of poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP), PARP is involved in DNA repair and henomic maintenance. The function of this protein in the caspase activation cascade is thought as a downstream enzyme and is processed by caspases 7, 8 and 10. Caspase-6 can also undergo self-processing without other caspases. The recombinant active human caspase-6 was expressed in E. coli.