Trefoil factors

Trefoil factor family (TFF) peptides have many in vivo and in vitro effects on restitution, wound healing, apoptosis, cell motility, adhesion and vectorial ion pumping, amongst others. (125)I-TFF peptides bind to cell membranes with classical saturable ability. It would be surprising if there were not TFF-protein interactions that would explain these actions, but to date no convincing TFF-binding partner has been shown which unambiguously takes part in any of these functions. Nevertheless, several TFF-binding proteins exist, including the small intestinal CRP-ductin (muclin), which binds TFF2, and the recently described gastric foveolar proteins TFIZ1 (TFF1-binding) and blottin (TFF2-binding), any of which may yet interact in novel ways to elicit TFF-mediated events. This review describes the expression and, where known, the functions of such proteins.