Programmed cell death regulates a number of biological processes such as normal organism development, tissue homeostasis, and removal of damaged cells. Disruption of this process has been implicated in a variety of diseases such as cancer. LFG is a recently identified protein that can inhibit the apoptotic signal transduced by the Fas receptor but not from the related tumor necrosis factor-alpha death signal. In this respect, LFG is functionally similar to the anti-apoptotic proteins FAIM, FLIP and Bcl-xL. LFG, a seven membrane spanning protein, can bind the Fas receptor but does not regulate Fas expression or inhibit binding of FADD to Fas. LFG is widely distributed, but highly expressed in the hippocampus and other neural tissues. LFG was also identified as the neural membrane protein 35 (NMP35) and its expression is known to be regulated by the Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase-Akt/PKB pathway.
