WFDC2

"HE4" redirects here. For the isotope of helium (He-4 or ⁴He), see Helium-4.

"WAP5" redirects here. For the Indian railway locomotive, see Indian locomotive class WAP-5.

WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2 - also known as Human Epididymis Protein 4^[5] (HE4) - is a protein that in humans is encoded by the WFDC2 gene.^[6][7][8]

WFDC2
Identifiers
Aliases	WFDC2, EDDM4, HE4, WAP5, dJ461P17.6, WAP four-disulfide core domain 2
External IDs	OMIM: 617548; MGI: 1914951; HomoloGene: 4450; GeneCards: WFDC2; OMA:WFDC2 - orthologs
Gene location (Human) Chr. Chromosome 20 (human)[1] Band 20q13.12 Start 45,469,753 bp[1] End 45,481,532 bp[1]
Gene location (Mouse) Chr. Chromosome 2 (mouse)[2] Band 2|2 H3 Start 164,404,333 bp[2] End 164,410,430 bp[2]
RNA expression pattern Bgee Human Mouse (ortholog) Top expressed in olfactory zone of nasal mucosa nasal epithelium right uterine tube epithelium of bronchus bronchial epithelial cell right lobe of thyroid gland left lobe of thyroid gland palpebral conjunctiva corpus epididymis trachea Top expressed in right lung lobe transitional epithelium of urinary bladder left lung left colon cervix olfactory epithelium left lung lobe medullary collecting duct right kidney embryo More reference expression data BioGPS More reference expression data
Gene ontology Molecular function aspartic-type endopeptidase inhibitor activity peptidase inhibitor activity endopeptidase inhibitor activity serine-type endopeptidase inhibitor activity cysteine-type endopeptidase inhibitor activity Cellular component extracellular region extracellular exosome extracellular space Biological process negative regulation of peptidase activity proteolysis spermatogenesis negative regulation of endopeptidase activity Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs Species Human Mouse Entrez 10406 67701 Ensembl ENSG00000101443 ENSMUSG00000017723 UniProt Q14508 Q9DAU7 RefSeq (mRNA) NM_006103 NM_080733 NM_080734 NM_080735 NM_080736 NM_026323 NM_001374655 RefSeq (protein) NP_006094 NP_080599 NP_001361584 Location (UCSC) Chr 20: 45.47 – 45.48 Mb Chr 2: 164.4 – 164.41 Mb PubMed search [3] [4]
Wikidata
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HE4 is a tumor marker of ovarian cancer, with 80% sensitivity at a cut-off of 150 pmol/L.^[9]

Function

This gene encodes a protein that is a member of the WFDC domain family. The WFDC domain, or WAP Signature motif, contains eight cysteines forming four disulfide bonds at the core of the protein, and functions as a protease inhibitor in many family members. This gene is expressed in pulmonary epithelial cells among other tissues, and was also found to be expressed in some ovarian cancers.^[5] The encoded protein is a small secretory protein, which may be involved in sperm maturation.^[8]