The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the thrombospondin family. Thrombospondin family members are adhesive glycoproteins that mediate cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions. This protein forms a pentameric molecule linked by a single disulfide bond. This gene shares a common promoter with metaxin 1. Alternate splicing results in coding and non-coding transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Nov 2011].
Pan, Chang, Chuang, Hung: "The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug NS398 reactivates SPARC expression via promoter demethylation to attenuate invasiveness of lung cancer cells." in: Experimental biology and medicine (Maywood, N.J.), Vol. 233, Issue 4, pp. 456-62, (2008) (PubMed).