Cardiotrophin-1/CT-1: Proteins and Enzymes

Cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1) is a member of a cytokine family that also includes IL-6, IL-11, LIF, OSM, CLC, CT-2/(Np), CNTF, and IL-31. It has overlapping functions with other IL-6 family members on a variety of cell types. Full-length human and mouse CT-1 lack a canonical signal sequence and share 79% amino acid sequence identity. CT-1 is highly expressed in heart, skeletal muscle, liver, lung, and kidney. Lower levels of CT-1 expression are also observed in testis and the brain.