| Modification Notes |
Phospholipases catalyze the release of fatty acids from phospho-lipids (1). One member of the phospholipase family, iPLA2, is detected as a membrane-bound protein with multiple smaller isoforms, which result from alternative splicing (2). Another phopholipase, sPLA2, belongs to a family of secretory phospholipases A2, which represent an expanding family of related enzymes (3,4). sPLA2 has both membrane bound and secreted forms that are encoded by a single gene which maps to human chromosome 1p35 (5,6). sPLA2 is involved in the regulation of phospholipid metabolism in biomembranes and in eicosanoid biosynthesis (5). Group X sPLA2 mRNA is found in various tissues including the lung, thymus, and spleen, and immunohistochemical analysis reveals its expression in splenic macrophages (3). Group X sPLA2 is an actively secreted enzyme that maps to human chromosome 16p13.1-p12 (4). |