[Novel biomarker for pathological immature cells--soluble form of LR11].

LR11 (also called SorLA or SORL1), a member of the LDL receptor family, was originally discovered in 1996 from genes specifically expressed in the intimal smooth muscle cells of atherosclerotic plaques. The soluble form of LR11 (sLR11) as well as the membrane-bound form plays a key role in the phenotype conversion of medial smooth muscle cells into intimal smooth muscle cells through the activation of urokinase receptor/integrin-mediated intracellular pathways. The levels of sLR11 in serum or CSF are increased in patients with atherosclerotic diseases, Alzheimer's disease or malignant diseases including acute leukemias. The recently developed ELISA system using two specific antibodies against LR11 made it possible to measure sLR11 quantitatively and stably for many samples. Thus, a novel clinical examination is expected to detect the pathological immature cells important for the pathophysiology of the above diseases. The soluble receptor-based clinical approach, together with basic studies about the structure-function relationship, may shed light on the development of novel target therapy against pathological immature cells in the science fields of so far independently categorized diseases.