Proteolytic enzymes, also called peptidases or proteases, hydrolyze proteins into smaller fragments (peptides) and often further into single amino acids. Peptidases are present in all living organisms from viruses to vertebrates where maintain many crucial biological processes (eg digestion, wound healing and remodeling or antigen presentation). Peptidases are often parts of a complex protein mixture and the association of peptidolytic activity to a specific type of peptidases can be problematic. To distinguish among the various peptidases, their proenzymes and/or mature enzymes as well as among the different enzymatic isoforms in any biological sample, zymography can be used. Zymography serves as a fast, simple and sensitive electrophoretic technique, which allows us to study the hydrolytic activity of any protein sample on the basis of substrate degradation.
The research was supported from ERDF Project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000441.