RK-2 - A NOVEL RABBIT KIDNEY DEFENSIN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR RENAL HOST-DEFENSE

Defensins are endogenous antimicrobial peptides. We demonstrated recen tly the existence of RK-1, a defensin-like peptide in rabbit kidneys. Defining the renal-defensin system is an essential step toward underst anding how the kidney responds to infection. Here, using a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography, matrix-assisted laser deso rption time-of-flight mass spectrometry, amino acid compositional anal ysis, and microsequence analysis, we show that the rabbit kidney conta ins a novel a-defensin-like peptide, RK-2. This work establishes the e xistence of a new subfamily of cr-defensins in the kidney. (C) 1998 El sevier Science Inc.