INHA

Inhibin, alpha
Identifiers
Symbols INHA;
External IDs OMIM147380 MGI96569 HomoloGene1652 GeneCards: INHA Gene
RNA expression pattern
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species Human Mouse
Entrez 3623 16322
Ensembl ENSG00000123999 ENSMUSG00000032968
UniProt P05111 Q6GTG7
RefSeq (mRNA) NM_002191 NM_010564.4
RefSeq (protein) NP_002182 NP_034694.3
Location (UCSC) Chr 2:
220.43 – 220.44 Mb
Chr 1:
75.5 – 75.51 Mb
PubMed search [1] [2]

Inhibin, alpha, also known as INHA, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the INHA gene.[1]

Contents

Function

The inhibin alpha subunit joins either the beta A or beta B subunit to form a pituitary FSH secretion inhibitor. Inhibin has been shown to regulate gonadal stromal cell proliferation negatively and to have tumour-suppressor activity. In addition, serum levels of inhibin have been shown to reflect the size of granulosa-cell tumors and can therefore be used as a marker for primary as well as recurrent disease. However, in prostate cancer, expression of the inhibin alpha-subunit gene was suppressed and was not detectable in poorly differentiated tumor cells. Furthermore, because expression in gonadal and various extragonadal tissues may vary severalfold in a tissue-specific fashion, it is proposed that inhibin may be both a growth/differentiation factor and a hormone.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Burger HG, Igarashi M (April 1988). "Inhibin: definition and nomenclature, including related substances". Endocrinology 122 (4): 1701–2. doi:10.1210/endo-122-4-1701. PMID 3345731. 
  2. ^ "Entrez Gene: INHA inhibin, alpha". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=gene&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=3623. 

Further reading