Ctsh - cathepsin H

This gene encodes a member of the peptidase C1 (papain) family of cysteine proteases. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants, at least one of which encodes a preproprotein that is proteolytically processed to generate multiple protein products. These products include the cathepsin H mini, heavy, and light chains. In rat and human, these three chains can associate to form the mature enzyme, which has both aminopeptidase and endopeptidase activities. Homozygous knockout mice for this gene exhibit impaired lung surfactant processing and reduced tumorigenesis in a pancreatic cancer model. Multiple pseudogenes of this gene have been identified in the genome. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2015]