Syndecan

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A transmembrane proteoglycan found on the surface of cells that helps bind growth factors and other signaling molecules to the cell
2. A family of cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans that act as co-receptors, anchoring molecules and regulating cell signaling and adhesion
3. A membrane-spanning protein carrying sugar chains that cells use to bind signaling molecules and to interact with the surrounding extracellular matrix

Etymology: Syndecan is a technical coinage rather than an old word. It was named in the 1980s by biochemists studying the molecules that sit on cell surfaces and bind to other molecules. The name combines the Greek prefix "syn-", meaning "together", with "-decan", a form related to the Greek "dein", meaning "to bind", so the name roughly means something that binds together. The sense was chosen to reflect the molecule's role in linking cells to the surrounding matrix and to one another. Syndecans are a family of transmembrane proteins, each carrying chains of sugar molecules called heparan sulfate or chondroitin sulfate attached to a protein core. Because of those sugar chains, they are classed as proteoglycans. Their name was given to the family as a whole, and the individual members were numbered, so the family is referred to as syndecan-1 through syndecan-4.