Psap - prosaposin Gene

This gene encodes a multifunctional glycoprotein that plays a role in the intracellular metabolism of various sphingolipids or secreted into the plasma, milk or cerebrospinal fluid. The encoded protein undergoes proteolytic processing to generate four different polypeptides known as saposin A, B, C or D, that are required for the hydrolysis of certain sphingolipids by lysosomal hydrolases. Alternately, the encoded protein is secreted into body fluids where it exhibits neurotrophic and myelinotrophic activities. A complete lack of the encoded protein is fatal to mice either at the neonatal stage or within the first month due to severe leukodystrophy and sphingolipid accumulation. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms that may undergo similar processing to generate the mature saposins. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2015]