Synonyms
Historical Background: Relaxin Family Peptides and Their Receptors
Relaxin family peptides including the relaxins 1–3, insulin-like peptides (INSL) 3–6, and insulin-like growth factors I and II have a similar architecture to insulin. These peptides are generally involved in the regulation of cell growth and metabolism. Relaxin was originally identified as a hormone important during pregnancy but is also now known to have roles in collagen remodeling, wound healing, cardiovascular responses, and as a brain neuropeptide. In the human, three independent genes produce three relaxin peptides, named relaxin-1, relaxin, and the recently discovered relaxin-3 (Bathgate et al. 2002). Relaxin-3 is primarily expressed in the brain as a neuropeptide that mediates stress and feeding responses in rats (Tanaka et al. 2005; McGowan et al. 2005, 2007). Relaxin-3 peptide sequences from different species are well conserved (Bathgate et al. 2002;...
References
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van der Westhuizen, E.T., Halls, M.L., Summers, R.J. (2012). Relaxin Family Peptide Receptors (RXFP) 3 and 4. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0461-4_583
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