Background information
Members of the bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein family have antimicrobial properties and bind lipophilic substances, therefore targeting gram-negative bacteria. The bactericidal permeability increasing protein (BPI) is an antibacterial and endotoxin-neutralizing molecule that is abundant in the granules of polymorphonuclear leukocytes (neutrophil granules). Sharing structural and sequence homologies with BPI, BPIL2 (Bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein-like 2) is a 507 amino acid secreted protein that contains the family’s common conserved feature of two cysteine residues that are critical for protein function. While BPIL2 is expressed in the basal layer of inflamed epidermis from psoriasis patients, it is not detected in normal skin.
