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Identification and characterization of a novel vascular marker, Placental endothelial protein ‐1 (PEP‐1)

We undertook the transcript profiling approach by Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) to identify novel vascular markers in human venous and arterial endothelial cells (EC) isolated from fresh umbilical cord. Their transcript profiles were digitally compared to the microvascular EC and four non‐EC SAGE libraries retrieved from the NCBI SAGEmap database. From the data analysis, we identified a novel EC marker, placental endothelial protein‐1 (PEP‐1) that has interesting structure features and expression patterns. Northern Blot analysis demonstrated that PEP‐1 is selectively expressed in placenta over other normal human adult tissues. Real‐time qPCR assay reveals that PEP‐1 expression is significantly down‐regulated by IL‐1‐beta and TNF‐alpha in cultured ECs. Protein profile and pattern analysis on the cloned full‐length cDNA sequence of PEP‐1 has shown that the putative PEP‐1 precursor may represent a 1,657 amino acids glycoprotein that contains multiple thrombospondin type‐I repeats, one RGD binding motif and one CD36 binding domain. Finally, sequence‐structural analysis suggests that PEP‐1 possess potential cell‐to‐cell interaction and adhesion functions with reminiscences of tenascin, and may play an important role in regulating endothelial function. The exact function of PEP‐1 still needs to be determined by further studies.