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Article: The major zinc transporter families harbor contrasting characteristics.
- Article from:
- Drug Week
- Article date:
- October 1, 2004
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2004 OCT 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The major zinc transporter families harbor contrasting characteristics.
"New insights into mammalian zinc metabolism have been acquired through the identification and characterization of zinc transporters. These proteins all have transmembrane domains, and are encoded by two solute-linked carrier (SLC) gene families: ZnT (SLC30) and Zip (SLC39). There are at least 9 ZnT and 15 Zip transporters in human cells," investigators in the United States report.
"They appear to have opposite roles in cellular zinc homeostasis. ZnT transporters reduce intracellular zinc availability by promoting zinc efflux from cells or ...