抄録
Many investigations related to the kallikrein-kinin system (K-K system) have been done during the past 60 years, and many important discoveries and/or hypotheses concerning the physiological and the pathological meanings of this system have been developed or proposed. However, we have not the sufficient evidence to support most hypotheses ever reported and it should be said that the meanings of this system in the body are still obscure in many cases. In this review, the recent progress and trends of biochemical studies on the K-K system were first described, including such as the discovery of T-kinin, the structural analyses of kininogens and prokallikreins obtained from the analyses of their mRNAs and DNAs, discovery of new function of kininogens as thiol protease inhibitor, the development of a useful kinin antagonist, detection of tissue kallikrein secreted into the circulation system and so on. Recent works revealed that kallikrein widely distributes in the body, such as anterior pituitary, mast-cell, prostate, blood vessels and so on, besides ever known organs, and might hydrolyze atrial natriuretic substance, growth factor, insulin, apolipoprotein etc, besides kinin liberation. Based on these recent informations and the already known facts, the functions of the K-K system were discussed and the problems that we are now confronted in research of this system were also mentioned.
