Cystatin C uptake in the eye.
Background: As a secreted protein, cystatin C is assumed to play its role in the extracellular compartment, where it can inhibit virtually all cysteine proteases of families C1 ( cathepsin B, L, S) and C13 ( mammalian legumain-related proteases). Since many of its potential target enzymes in the eye reside in intracellular compartments, we sought evidence for a cellular uptake of the inhibitor in
