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Placental protein 14 (PP14), also known as progestagen-dependent endometrial protein and pregnancy-associated endometrial alpha 2-globulin, is synthesized by the human secretory endometrium and decidua. We have isolated from a human decidual cDNA library clones corresponding to PP14 and deduced its entire amino acid sequence. PP14 contains 180 amino acids, 18 of which correspond to a putative signal peptide. The predicted molecular weight of the pre-PP14 is 20,555 and that of the mature protein is 18,787. PP14 is encoded by a 1-kilobase-pair mRNA that is expressed in human secretory endometrium and decidua but not in postmenopausal endometrium, placenta, liver, kidney, and adrenals. The 162-residue-long sequence of PP14 is highly homologous to beta-lactoglobulins, with a 53.4% identity with the amino acid sequence of horse beta-lactoglobulin I. The four cysteinyl residues (positions 66, 106, 119, and 160) responsible for intramolecular disulfide bridges in beta-lactoglobulins are all conserved in PP14. Southern blot analysis of human DNA suggested that PP14 gene sequences encompass some 20 kilobase pairs of the human genomic DNA.
Julkunen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.