ARG2 Antibody / Arginase 2

ARG2 (arginase, type II) encodes a 355-amino acid polypeptide. Using Northern blotting and RT-PCR, Vockley et al. (1996) found that ARG2 is expressed as a 1.5-kb mRNA in a wide variety of tissues, with highest levels of expression in prostate, brain, and kidney. By PCR analysis of somatic cell hybrid panels, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and radiation hybrid analysis, the ARG2 gene is mapped to 14q24.1-q24.3. ARG2 may be inducible and may be essential in the regulation of nitric oxide synthesis by modulating local arginine concentrations. Gotoh et al. (1996) showed thatARG2mRNA and nitric oxide synthase (NOS) mRNA were coinduced by lipopolysaccharide in a macrophage-like cell line. Arginase II has been implicated in the regulation of the arginine/ornithine concentrations in the cell. The mitochondrial location of ARG2 and its coinduction with ornithine aminotransferase and involvement with proline biosynthesis in lactating rat mammary gland had led to the inference that ARG2 is involved in biosynthetic functions, as opposed to the metabolic ones of the urea cycle.