Clusterin

The biological function of clusterin (CLU, also known as ApoJ, SGP2, TRPM2, CLI) has been puzzling researchers since its discovery and characterization in the early 1980s. Approaches such as cloning, expression and functional characterization of the different protein products generated by the CLU gene have now produced a critical mass of information of tremendous biological importance that are teaching us an important lesson in molecular biology of gene expression regulation. This volume brings together the contributions of top researchers in the field, providing an overview and synthesis of the latest thought and findings relating to CLU.

. Introduction

Saverio Bettuzzi

2. Clusterin (CLU): From One Gene and Two

Transcripts to Many Proteins

Federica Rizzi, Mariangela Coletta, and Saverio Bettuzzi

3. The Shifting Balance Between CLU Forms

During Tumor Progression

Sabina Pucci and Saverio Bettuzzi

4. Regulation of Clusterin Activity by Calcium

Beata Pajak and Arkadiusz Orzechowski

5. Nuclear CLU (nCLU) and the Fate of the Cell

Saverio Bettuzzi and Federica Rizzi

6. The Chaperone Action of Clusterin and Its Putative Role

in Quality Control of Extracellular Protein Folding

Amy Wyatt, Justin Yerbury, Stephen Poon,

Rebecca Dabbs, and Mark Wilson

7. Cell Protective Functions of Secretory

Clusterin (sCLU)

Gerd Klocks, Markus Baiersdo¨ rfer, and Claudia Koch-Brandt

8. Clusterin: A Multifacet Protein at the Crossroad of

Inflammation and Autoimmunity

Ge´ raldine Falgarone and Gilles Chiocchia

9. Oxidative Stress in Malignant Progression: The Role of Clusterin,

A Sensitive Cellular Biosensor of Free Radicals

Ioannis P. Trougakos and Efstathios S. Gonos