| Modification Notes |
The glutamate pyruvate transaminases GPT (or GPT1) and GPT2, also designated alanine aminotransferases (ALT1 and ALT2), respectively, catalyze the reversible transamination between alanine and 2-oxoglutarate to form pyruvate and glutamate. Subsequently, they play a key role in the intermediary metabolism of glucose and amino acids. GPT and GPT2 share significant sequence homology, but differ in their expression patterns. GPT exhibits high expression in kidney, liver and heart, whereas GPT2 expression is high in muscle, fat and kidney. GPT is widely used as an index of liver integrity or hepatocellular damage in clinical settings. The genes encoding human GPT maps to chromosome 8q24.3; the gene encoding human GPT2 maps to chromosome 16q12.1. |