Background
The Flt-3 (fms-like tyrosine kinase) receptor, also named Flk-2and Stk-1is a member of the class III subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases that also includes KIT, the receptor for SCF and FMS, the receptor for M-CSF. The extracellular region of these receptors contains five immunoglobulin-like domains and the intracellular region contains a split kinase domain. Human Flt-3 cDNA encodes a 993 amino acid (aa) residue type I membrane protein with a 26 aa residue signal peptide, a 515 aa extracellular domain with 10 potential N-linked glycosylation sites, a 21 aa residue transmembrane domain and a 431 aa residue cytoplasmic domain. Flt-3 expression has been detected in various tissues, including placenta, gonads, and tissues of nervous and hematopoietic origin. Among hematopoietic cells, the expression of Flt-3 was found to be restricted to the highly enriched stem/progenitor cell populations. The ligand for Flt-3 (FL) has been identified to be a transmembrane protein with structural homology to M-CSF and SCF. Recombinant soluble Flt-3/Fc chimeric protein has been shown to bind FL with high affinity and is a potent FL antagonist.
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