Cathepsin G in degenerating and healthy discal tissue.

Abstract

Due to its properties and localization in normal and pathologically altered tissue, cathepsin G probably plays both a direct and an indirect role in extracellular matrix degradation in the annulus fibrosus. Extracted cationic cathepsin G was immunoreactive, but was functionally inhibited by serpins or, more likely, by polyanionic proteoglycans and saccharins derived from the connective tissue matrix of the annulus fibrosus.