protein_function: Elicits growth inhibition on melanoma cells in vitro aswell as some other neuroectodermal tumors, including gliomas.
Melanoma Inhibiting Activity(MIA), also known as cartilage-derived retinoic acid-sensitive protein(CD-RAP), is an approximately 11-15 kDa protein that is expressed as a noncovalent homodimer. MIA is structurally related to OTOR,Otoraplin and MIA-2 in a small family of secreted proteins with one SH3 domain(1-3). And the MIA gene was mapped to 19q13.32-q13.33 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Beside, It is a marker for malignant melanoma. MIA functions as a chemoattractant for mesenchymal stem cells and enhances their BMP-2 and TGF-beta3 induced differentiation into chondrocytes . MIA-deficient mice exhibit delayed chondrocyte differentiation but enhanced chondrocyte proliferation and cartilage repair .