Adam15 - a disintegrin and metallopeptidase domain 15 (metargidin)

This gene encodes a member of a disintegrin and metalloprotease (ADAM) family of endoproteases that play important roles in various biological processes including cell signaling, adhesion and migration. This gene is prominently expressed in vascular cells, the endocardium, hypertrophic cells in developing bone, and specific areas of hippocampus and cerebellum. The encoded preproprotein undergoes proteolytic processing to generate a mature, functional protein. Mice lacking the encoded protein have increased bone mass resulting from osteoblast proliferation, and exhibit reduced neovascularization in a mouse model for retinopathy. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms that may undergo similar processing. [provided by RefSeq, May 2016]