Prolyl carboxypeptidase purified from human placenta: its characterization and identification as an apelin-cleaving enzyme

These results show that placenta is a good source of human PRCP and that PRCP removes the C-terminal phenylalanine from pyroglutamated apelin-13. For the first time, PRCP is identified as an apelin-cleaving enzyme. This finding adds evidence to the hypothesis that PRCP plays a role in energy homeostasis.