Biochemical and Biological Characteristics of Leucocyte Proteinase Inhibitors

In last decade there has been an intensifying interest in naturally occurring protease inhibitors. Inhibitors which are present in the same cells as the enzymes they inhibit are of great physiological significance. A vast amount of literature1 reports that leucocytes are cells which contain different types of proteinases: neutral, thiol and acid ones. Only for the latter group of enzymes has the endogenous inhibitor not yet been determined, whereas for all other types the specific endogenous inhibitors have already been detected. Many groups of invest a ors have studied the isolation2–6, molecular characterization7–9 and mode of inhibition of these proteins10.