ESM1

ESM1
Identifiers
Aliases	ESM1, endocan, endothelial cell specific molecule 1
External IDs	OMIM: 601521; MGI: 1918940; HomoloGene: 5107; GeneCards: ESM1; OMA:ESM1 - orthologs
Gene location (Human)
Chr.	Chromosome 5 (human)
End	55,022,671 bp
Gene location (Mouse)
Chr.	Chromosome 13 (mouse)
End	113,354,632 bp
RNA expression pattern
	Top expressed in
	islet of Langerhans; ; right lung; ; testicle; ; trabecular bone; ; upper lobe of left lung; ; human kidney; ; lower lobe of lung; ; renal cortex; ; visceral pleura; ; tibia;
	Top expressed in
	pineal gland; ; islet of Langerhans; ; right kidney; ; stroma of bone marrow; ; human kidney; ; adrenal gland; ; pituitary gland; ; proximal tubule; ; extraocular muscle; ; renal corpuscle;
	More reference expression data
	More reference expression data
Gene ontology
Molecular function	integrin binding; insulin-like growth factor binding; hepatocyte growth factor receptor binding;
Cellular component	extracellular region;
Biological process	sprouting angiogenesis; regulation of cell growth; angiogenesis; positive regulation of cell population proliferation; positive regulation of hepatocyte growth factor receptor signaling pathway;
	Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
	11082
	71690
	ENSG00000164283
	ENSMUSG00000042379
	Q9NQ30
	Q9QYY7
	NM_007036; NM_001135604
	NM_023612
	NP_001129076; NP_008967
	NP_076101
	Wikidata
View/Edit Human	View/Edit Mouse

Endothelial cell-specific molecule 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ESM1 gene.

This gene encodes a secreted protein which is mainly expressed in the endothelial cells in human lung and kidney tissues. The expression of this gene is regulated by cytokines, suggesting that it may play a role in endothelium-dependent pathological disorders. The transcript contains multiple polyadenylation and mRNA instability signals.

The ESM-1 gene product is also called endocan since 2001, when it was characterized as a dermatan sulfate proteoglycan by Bechard et al. Recently, endocan / ESM-1 has been described as a specific biomarker of tip cells during neoangiogenesis by independent teams. Endocan expression has been shown to be increase in presence of pro-angiogenic growth factors such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2). In hypervascularized cancers, overexpression of endocan has been detected by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibodies against endocan / ESM-1.