Chemerin: A comprehensive review elucidating the need for cardiovascular research

Abstract

When chemerin was discovered in 1997, it was relegated to being a protein associated with the normal skin function contrasting the setting of psoriasis. However, with the discovery of multiple receptors for the chemerin protein and a vast collection of associations with various pathologies, chemerin has global influence capable of regulating chemotactic, adipokine, autocrine/paracrine, adipogenic, angiogenic, and reproductive functions. These individual abilities of chemerin are important for understanding its basic pharmacology and physiology, but application of these principles to human pathology relies on the ability of scientists and physicians to view this protein from a much wider, all-encompassing angle. A global participant in the action of chemerin is the cardiovascular system (CVS). Although the CVS may not have as many direct interactions (e.g. smooth muscle in endothelium) with chemerin as it does indirect (e.g. chemerin activation in the lumen by proteases), our basic understanding of the CVS and its relation to chemerin is necessary to form a proper grasp of its individual actions and make the applications to pathology. This review provides a fundamental, yet comprehensive review of chemerin that inherently identifies the CVS as a necessary link between chemerin and its associated pathologies, but also calls for basic cardiovascular research as the solution to this chasm between knowledge and application.

Keywords: Cardiovascular system; Chemerin; Pathology; Pharmacology; Physiology.

Figure 1. Processing and pathways of chemerin

Chemerin is depicted with the N-terminus on the left and C-terminus on the right. When preprochemerin is released, the membrane-bound signal peptide (blue) is released and the protein becomes prochemerin [8]. This is then cleaved at various locations by a protease (*see Table 1), creating an inactive prochemerin fragment (red) and active chemerin (green) [81]. The N-terminus (orange) can bind CCRL2 [12] or the C-terminus (purple) can bind ChemR23 or GPR1. CHO-K1 cultured cells demonstrate G_i signaling to various pathways [8] which differ depending on the process being carried out. GPR1 has been shown to bind chemerin and induce Ca²⁺ mobilization but the specific mechanisms are still unknown [3].