Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

GRN

Progranulin

Also known as: CLN11, GRN_HUMAN, PCDGF, PGRN

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P28799
Gene
GRN
Ensembl
ENSG00000030582
Chromosome
17
Canonical length
593 aa
Protein class
Disease related genes, Human disease related genes, Plasma proteins, Predicted intracellular proteins, Predicted secreted proteins
Subcellular location
Endosomes,Lysosomes
Secretome location
Secreted to blood
Quaternary structure
Homodimer

OverviewNCBI Gene

Granulins are a family of secreted, glycosylated peptides that are cleaved from a single precursor protein with 7.5 repeats of a highly conserved 12-cysteine granulin/epithelin motif. The 88 kDa precursor protein, progranulin, is also called proepithelin and PC cell-derived growth factor. Cleavage of the signal peptide produces mature granulin which can be further cleaved into a variety of active, 6 kDa peptides. These smaller cleavage products are named granulin A, granulin B, granulin C, etc. Epithelins 1 and 2 are synonymous with granulins A and B, respectively. Both the peptides and intact granulin protein regulate cell growth. However, different members of the granulin protein family may act as inhibitors, stimulators, or have dual actions on cell growth. Granulin family members are important in normal development, wound healing, and tumorigenesis. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

593 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P28799|GRN
     1  MWTLVSWVAL TAGLVAGTRC PDGQFCPVAC CLDPGGASYS CCRPLLDKWP TTLSRHLGGP
    61  CQVDAHCSAG HSCIFTVSGT SSCCPFPEAV ACGDGHHCCP RGFHCSADGR SCFQRSGNNS
   121  VGAIQCPDSQ FECPDFSTCC VMVDGSWGCC PMPQASCCED RVHCCPHGAF CDLVHTRCIT
   181  PTGTHPLAKK LPAQRTNRAV ALSSSVMCPD ARSRCPDGST CCELPSGKYG CCPMPNATCC
   241  SDHLHCCPQD TVCDLIQSKC LSKENATTDL LTKLPAHTVG DVKCDMEVSC PDGYTCCRLQ
   301  SGAWGCCPFT QAVCCEDHIH CCPAGFTCDT QKGTCEQGPH QVPWMEKAPA HLSLPDPQAL
   361  KRDVPCDNVS SCPSSDTCCQ LTSGEWGCCP IPEAVCCSDH QHCCPQGYTC VAEGQCQRGS
   421  EIVAGLEKMP ARRASLSHPR DIGCDQHTSC PVGQTCCPSL GGSWACCQLP HAVCCEDRQH
   481  CCPAGYTCNV KARSCEKEVV SAQPATFLAR SPHVGVKDVE CGEGHFCHDN QTCCRDNRQG
   541  WACCPYRQGV CCADRRHCCP AGFRCAARGT KCLRREAPRW DAPLRDPALR QLL

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against GRN can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Secreted
Secreted
Yes
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.4
Highest tissue expression
530 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • esophagus: 530 nTPM
  • bone marrow: 452 nTPM
  • spleen: 339 nTPM
  • lung: 292 nTPM
  • salivary gland: 255 nTPM
  • vagina: 197 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • esophageal apical cells: 1,739 nCPM
  • esophageal suprabasal cells: 1,205 nCPM
  • kupffer cells: 1,059 nCPM
  • hofbauer cells: 976 nCPM
  • syncytiotrophoblasts: 801 nCPM
  • monocytes: 648 nCPM

Immune cell

  • classical monocyte: 2,059 nTPM
  • total PBMC: 1,612 nTPM
  • myeloid DC: 1,536 nTPM
  • plasmacytoid DC: 1,334 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 1,123 nTPM
  • neutrophil: 854 nTPM

Brain region

  • white matter: 128 nTPM
  • thalamus: 127 nTPM
  • pons: 109 nTPM
  • medulla oblongata: 93 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 78 nTPM
  • spinal cord: 75 nTPM

DiseaseUniProt · ClinVar · IEDB · PubMed

Four sources answering four different questions about GRN.

Disease | AllUniProt

Conditions GRN is implicated in, by any mechanism.

Disease | GeneticClinVar

133 pathogenic / likely-pathogenic of 821 ClinVar records.

Conditions with pathogenic or likely-pathogenic variants.

ReferencesPubMed · IEDB

Publications for GRN from three distinct lines of evidence, kept separate because they answer different questions: whether antibodies are directed at the protein, whether a B-cell epitope has been mapped on it, and whether a T-cell epitope has. Each is labelled with its source.

Reference: AutoantibodyPubMed

9 publications

Show 4 more

Sources: PubMed — antigen-level antibody evidence from a custom retrieval. Records matching a controlled set of autoantibody terms (the MeSH descriptors Autoantibodies and Autoantigens, with title and abstract term variants) were obtained through NCBI E-utilities, and their titles and abstracts parsed for constructions that direct an antibody at a named protein rather than for co-occurrence. Captured names were resolved against UniProt nomenclature and each antigen adjudicated individually against the source text. Bibliographic records from PubMed and MeSH, U.S. National Library of Medicine; citation metrics from NIH iCite (Hutchins et al., PLoS Biology 2016). Titles link to PubMed; abstracts are not reproduced here. The NLM does not endorse this analysis.

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
0.48
gnomAD pLI
0.07
gnomAD missense Z
0.28
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.25
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 5% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

  • Granulin
  • Granulin superfamily
  • Granulin family
  • Granulin

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of GRN in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads GRN as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against GRN could matter depends on whether native GRN is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

GRN is annotated as secreted, so native GRN circulates and is directly accessible to antibodies. Secreted and cell-surface proteins are the autoantibody targets most likely to act like drugs, blocking or depleting the native protein.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label GRN as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/GRN. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...