Recent advance in the investigation of angiopoietin-like protein

Angiopoietin like protein(ANGPTL) are a group of newly found secretory glycoproteins,which are homologous in sequence with angiopoietins,and involved in vascular remodeling,structure maintaining and angiogenesis.However,the function of ANGPTL is quite different from that of angiopoietins.Besides their possible role in angiogenesis,ANGPTL also seem to have roles in animal metabolism.As a newly found group of proteins,only a fewer of property of those proteins has been discovered.In this article,the advance in the investigation of ANGPTL is reviewed.