Sankyo Company, Limited

Shin′ichi Mochizuki

Eisuke Tsuda

Kanji Higashio

Masaaki Goto

Fumie Kobayashi

Nobuyuki Shima

Kazuki Yano

Tomonori Morinaga

Masatsugu Ueda

Hisataka Yasuda

Nobuaki Nakagawa

A protein which inhibits osteoclast differentiation and/or maturation and a method for producing the protein. The protein is produced by human embryonic lung fibroblasts and has a molecular weight of about 60 kD and about 120 kD under non-reducing conditions and about 60 kD under reducing conditions on SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The protein can be isolated and purified from the culture medium of fibroblasts. Furthermore, the protein can be produced by gene engineering. The present invention includes cDNA for producing the protein by gene engineering, antibodies having specific affinity for the protein or a method for determining protein concentration using these antibodies.

Proteins and methods for producing the proteins

Growing community of inventors

Minamikawachi-machi, Japan

Shin′ichi Mochizuki