An alternatively spliced variant of cathepsin E in human gastric adenocarcinoma cells

Abstract Splice variant and authentic mRNAs for procathepsin E were measured at a ratio of 5:1 and 1:2 in Kato 3 and AGS cells, two human gastric adenocarcinoma cell lines. As a result of the precise splicing of the 3′-end of exon 6 to the 5′-end of exon 8, the variant lacked the 142 bp of exon 7 which encodes the second of the Asp residues that operate the catalytic mechanism of aspartic proteinases.