Itih1 - inter-alpha trypsin inhibitor, heavy chain 1

This gene encodes a heavy chain of inter-alpha trypsin inhibitor (IaI) family of plasma serine protease inhibitors. IaI proteins are protein-glycosaminoglycan-protein complexes comprised of two heavy chains and a light chain. The encoded protein covalently associates with the light chain via a chondroitin sulfate moiety. Intravenous administration of the encoded protein improved survival of mice after infection with Escherichia coli. This gene is located adjacent to two other IaI heavy chain genes. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms that may undergo similar proteolytic processing to generate mature protein. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2015]