SCUBE3 is a member of a family of secreted glycoproteins that contain N-terminal EGF-like repeats and C-terminal cysteine-rich motifs and CUB domain and is highly expressed in primary osteoblasts and bones, and to a lesser extent in heart. Other studies have shown that overexpression of SCUBE3 in mice induced cardiac hypertrophy, suggesting that it may also play a role in the regulation of cardiac growth.. SCUBE3 has been shown to be an endogenous TGF-beta receptor ligand and is thought to promote lung cancer cell mobility and invasiveness. In lung cancer cells, the secreted SCUBE3 protein was cleaved by MMP2 and MMP9, allowing the activation of the TGF-beta receptor, the increase of Smad2/3 transcriptional activity and the upregulation of expression of proteins such as TGF-beta1, VEGF, Snail, and Slug.Synonyms: CEGF3, Signal peptide CUB and EGF-like domain-containing protein 3