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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Immunol Rev. 2012 Jul;248(1):122–139. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-065X.2012.01136.x

Figure 1. Splice variants of CTLA-4.

Figure 1

Full length CTLA-4 (flCTLA-4) is composed of four exons representing the signal sequence, extracellular domain, transmembrane domain, and intracellular domain. Splice variants of the gene are generated by alternative splicing of these exons resulting in the formation of soluble CTLA-4 (sCTLA-4), which lacks the transmembrane domain, 1/4 CTLA-4 which lacks exons 2 and 3, and ligand-independent CTLA-4 (liCTLA-4) which lacks exon 2. In general, CTLA-4 acts as an inhibitory molecule. However, the 1/4 CTLA-4 isoform is stimulatory.