Risco Ana, Cuenda Ana
Departamento de Inmunología y Oncología, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología-CSIC, Campus de Cantoblanco-UAM, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
J Signal Transduct. 2012;2012:520289. doi: 10.1155/2012/520289. Epub 2011 Nov 30.
The mammalian p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) family is composed of four members (p38α, p38β, p38γ, and p38δ), which are very similar in amino acid sequence but differ in their expression patterns. This suggests that they may have specific functions in different organs. In the last years most of the effort has been centred on the study of the function of the p38α isoform, which is widely referred to as p38 in the literature. However, the role that other p38 isoforms play in cellular functions and their implication in some of the pathological conditions have not been precisely defined so far. In this paper we highlight recent advances made in defining the functions of the two less studied alternative p38MAPKs, p38γ and p38δ. We describe that these p38MAPKs show similarities to the classical p38α isoform, although they may play central and distinct role in certain physiological and pathological processes.
哺乳动物p38丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPKs）家族由四个成员组成（p38α、p38β、p38γ和p38δ），它们的氨基酸序列非常相似，但表达模式不同。这表明它们可能在不同器官中具有特定功能。在过去几年中，大部分研究工作都集中在p38α亚型功能的研究上，在文献中它被广泛称为p38。然而，到目前为止，其他p38亚型在细胞功能中的作用及其在某些病理状况中的影响尚未得到精确界定。在本文中，我们重点介绍了在确定研究较少的两种替代性p38MAPKs，即p38γ和p38δ的功能方面取得的最新进展。我们描述了这些p38MAPKs与经典的p38α亚型有相似之处，尽管它们可能在某些生理和病理过程中发挥核心且独特的作用。
