Calpains constitute a family of intracellular calcium-dependent cysteine proteases. There are eight members in this superfamily. They consist of a variable 80 kDa subunit and an invariant 30 kDa subunit. This calpain protein appears to have protease activity and calcium-binding ability. A similar mouse protein may play a functional role in spermatogenesis and in the regulation of calcium-dependent signal transduction events during meiosis. [provided by RefSeq, Dec 2008]
Forensic Context
A study in mice demonstrated that the CAPN11 level significantly increased in the cerebral cortex during the early post-mortem interval (0-32 hours), establishing its role as a protein marker for PMI estimation [He et al. DOI:10.1007/s00414-025-03625-9].