Kallikreins are a subgroup of serine proteases having diverse physiological functions. Growing evidence suggests that many kallikreins are implicated in carcinogenesis and some have potential as novel cancer and other disease biomarkers. This gene is one of the fifteen kallikrein subfamily members located in a cluster on chromosome 19. Alternate splicing of this gene results in four transcript variants encoding four different isoforms. The isoforms exhibit distinct patterns of expression that suggest roles in brain plasticity and ovarian cancer.[9]
^Yoshida S, Taniguchi M, Hirata A, Shiosaka S (Aug 1998). "Sequence analysis and expression of human neuropsin cDNA and gene". Gene. 213 (1–2): 9–16. doi:10.1016/S0378-1119(98)00232-7. PMID9714609.
Underwood LJ, Tanimoto H, Wang Y, et al. (1999). "Cloning of tumor-associated differentially expressed gene-14, a novel serine protease overexpressed by ovarian carcinoma". Cancer Res. 59 (17): 4435–9. PMID10485494.
Gan L, Lee I, Smith R, et al. (2001). "Sequencing and expression analysis of the serine protease gene cluster located in chromosome 19q13 region". Gene. 257 (1): 119–30. doi:10.1016/S0378-1119(00)00382-6. PMID11054574.
Magklara A, Scorilas A, Katsaros D, et al. (2001). "The human KLK8 (neuropsin/ovasin) gene: identification of two novel splice variants and its prognostic value in ovarian cancer". Clin. Cancer Res. 7 (4): 806–11. PMID11309326.
Shigemasa K, Tian X, Gu L, et al. (2004). "Human kallikrein 8 (hK8/TADG-14) expression is associated with an early clinical stage and favorable prognosis in ovarian cancer". Oncol. Rep. 11 (6): 1153–9. doi:10.3892/or.11.6.1153. PMID15138549.
Rajapakse S, Ogiwara K, Takano N, et al. (2006). "Biochemical characterization of human kallikrein 8 and its possible involvement in the degradation of extracellular matrix proteins". FEBS Lett. 579 (30): 6879–84. doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2005.11.039. hdl:2115/985. PMID16337200. S2CID22439153.