Urocortin-3 is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the UCN3 gene.[5][6] It belongs to the corticotropin-releasing hormone family.[7]

Function

This gene is a member of the sauvagine/corticotropin-releasing factor/urotensin I family. It is structurally related to the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) gene and the encoded product is an endogenous ligand for CRF type 2 receptors.

In the brain it may be responsible for the effects of stress on appetite. In humans, it is also expressed by alpha cells and beta cells in the pancreas and is co-released with glucagon and insulin to promote somatostatin release from neighboring delta cells, which provides negative feedback on glucagon and insulin secretion.[8] In spite of the gene family name similarity, the product of this gene has no sequence similarity to Urotensin-II.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c GRCh38: Ensembl release 89: ENSG00000178473Ensembl, May 2017
  2. ^ a b c GRCm38: Ensembl release 89: ENSMUSG00000044988Ensembl, May 2017
  3. ^ "Human PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  4. ^ "Mouse PubMed Reference:". National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine.
  5. ^ Lewis K, Li C, Perrin MH, Blount A, Kunitake K, Donaldson C, Vaughan J, Reyes TM, Gulyas J, Fischer W, Bilezikjian L, Rivier J, Sawchenko PE, Vale WW (Jun 2001). "Identification of urocortin III, an additional member of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) family with high affinity for the CRF2 receptor". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 98 (13): 7570–5. Bibcode:2001PNAS...98.7570L. doi:10.1073/pnas.121165198. PMC 34709. PMID 11416224.
  6. ^ a b "Entrez Gene: UCN3 urocortin 3 (stresscopin)".
  7. ^ Zhang X, Liu Y, Qi J, Tian Z, Tang N, Chen D, Li Z (2019). "Progress in understanding the roles of Urocortin3 (UCN3) in the control of appetite from studies using animal models". Peptides. 121: 170124. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2019.170124. PMID 31415798. S2CID 199544428.
  8. ^ van der Meulen T, Donaldson CJ, Cáceres E, Hunter AE, Cowing-Zitron C, Pound LD, Adams MW, Zembrzycki A, Grove KL, Huising MO (Jul 2015). "Urocortin3 mediates somatostatin-dependent negative feedback control of insulin secretion". Nature Medicine. 21 (7): 769–76. doi:10.1038/nm.3872. PMC 4496282. PMID 26076035.

Further reading