Bläker M, Kock K, Ahlers C, Buck F, Schmale H
Institut für Zellbiochemie und klinische Neurobiologie, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
Biochim Biophys Acta. 1993 Feb 20;1172(1-2):131-7. doi: 10.1016/0167-4781(93)90279-m.
Von Ebner's glands (VEG) are small lingual salivary glands. Their ducts open into trenches of circumvallate and foliate papillae, thus influencing the milieu where the interaction between taste receptor cells and sapid molecules takes place. The major secretions of human VEG is a protein with a molecular mass of 18 kDa. The human VEG protein crossreacts with antibodies raised against the rat VEG protein, indicating sequence similarity between the rat and human VEG proteins. This was subsequently confirmed by N-terminal protein sequencing. A cDNA clone, isolated from a human VEG library, contained an insert of 735 bp including an open reading frame that encodes the human VEG protein of 176 amino acids. Comparison of the human and rat VEG proteins revealed an overall identity of 60%. Immunocytochemistry, in situ hybridization and in vitro translation studies demonstrated the human VEG protein to be highly and exclusively expressed in VEG. The VEG proteins are members of the lipocalin protein superfamily and, together with the rat odorant binding protein II, they constitute a new subfamily. Sequence similarity to proteins such as the retinol binding protein and the odorant binding protein which are lipophilic ligand carriers, suggests a possible function for the human VEG protein in taste perception.
埃伯纳腺（VEG）是小型舌唾液腺。它们的导管开口于轮廓乳头和叶状乳头的沟中，从而影响味觉受体细胞与有味分子相互作用发生的环境。人类埃伯纳腺的主要分泌物是一种分子量为18 kDa的蛋白质。人类埃伯纳腺蛋白与针对大鼠埃伯纳腺蛋白产生的抗体发生交叉反应，表明大鼠和人类埃伯纳腺蛋白之间存在序列相似性。随后通过N端蛋白质测序证实了这一点。从人类埃伯纳腺文库中分离出的一个cDNA克隆包含一个735 bp的插入片段，其中包括一个编码176个氨基酸的人类埃伯纳腺蛋白的开放阅读框。人类和大鼠埃伯纳腺蛋白的比较显示总体一致性为60%。免疫细胞化学、原位杂交和体外翻译研究表明，人类埃伯纳腺蛋白在埃伯纳腺中高度且特异性表达。埃伯纳腺蛋白是脂质运载蛋白超家族的成员，与大鼠气味结合蛋白II一起构成一个新的亚家族。与视黄醇结合蛋白和气味结合蛋白等作为亲脂性配体载体的蛋白质的序列相似性，表明人类埃伯纳腺蛋白在味觉感知中可能具有功能。
