Cathepsin D is one of the lysosomal proteinases. It is ubiquitously expressed and is involved in proteolytic degradation, cell invasion, and apoptosis. Cathepsin D is mapped to chromosome 11. The amino acid sequence predicted from the cDNA sequence shows that human cathepsin D consists of 412 amino acids with 20 and 44 amino acids in a pre- and a prosegment, respectively.
