This web page has been established as a part of project primarily supported by Norwegian grant and European Economic Area (EEA) grant in order to promote research on apocrine and holocrine secretion mechanisms with some emphasis on their clinical implications.
In contrast to classic and intensely studied exocytosis (merocrine secretion) the key components of which are well known, the molecular and genetic determinants of unconventional type of secretion, such as apocrine and holocrine secretion, remain enigmatic.
In textbooks, the apocrine secretion is frequently described in association with lactation activity of mammary glands, Harderian gland, and of some exocrine glands, or notably as a differential diagnostic marker for some benign metaplasias and in several dermatogenic and some breast cancers.
Apocrine secretion is historically known for 178 years. Human sweat glands, as typical apocrine secretory organ, were described first by Purkinje in 1833. Independently, Velpeau (1839) and later Verneuil (1854) described a chronic acneiform infection of the cutaneous apocrine glands which has been named hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). In spite of this, until now we have no evidence about proteins (and corresponding genes) involved in the apocrine or holocrine secretion at the level of their control, origin or contents of the secretagogue.
Our research group analyses samples from patients with hidradenitis suppurativa disorder to identify components of apocrine fluids and to use them for potential diagnostic differentiation, as well as to search for disorder's etiology. Simultaneously we are investigating basic mechanisms of this unconventional type of secretion by using genetic model organism, Drosophila melanogaster. With this approach we hope to identify proteins, and their corresponding genes, responsible for regulation of apocrine secretory activity.
This web site is intended to promote and expand basic as well as applied research on the apocrine and holocrine secretion behind the scope of NFM and EEA grants, and to facilitate international collaboration and scientific communication in this field. Therefore, in the future we plan to expand the role of this web site towards this goals, and we will update its contents regularly.
