Pancreatic Polypeptide 2 (PPY2)

NPY is an abundant neuropeptide regulating a wide range of physiologic activities. Another member of the NPY family, PYY, is an inhibitory hormone secreted by digestive tract endocrine cells. PPY is a pancreatic hormone inhibiting secretion of enzymes and bicarbonate from the exocrine pancreas. The genes encoding PYY and PPY are thought to have arisen by gene duplication and are localized on chromosome 17q21.1. All 3 genes contain 4 exons with little or no intronic homology.

RT-PCR analysis detected expression in pooled pancreas, intestine, and liver cDNA libraries. Despite 91% nucleotide sequence identity between PPY2 and PPY, the retention of intron 2 in the cDNA with a point mutation in the signal peptide of PPY2 introduces a premature stop codon and a protein containing only 68 amino acids.