BCAN Gene - Brevican: Function, Expression, and Disease Associations

BCAN (brevican) is a member of the lectican family of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. It is predominantly expressed in the central nervous system, where it is a major component of the perineuronal nets and the extracellular matrix. Brevican plays critical roles in neural cell adhesion, neurite outgrowth, synaptic plasticity, and glial scar formation. Alternative splicing generates multiple isoforms. Dysregulation of BCAN expression is implicated in glioma invasion and other neurological disorders.

Tissue Expression

Cell Line Expression

Hotspot Mutations

Mutation functional classification

• Extracellular matrix organization (Reactome: R-HSA-1474244)

• Hyaluronan metabolism (Reactome: R-HSA-216083)

• Aggrecan and brevican degradation (Reactome: R-HSA-216091)

Brevican is a 911-amino acid chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan with a molecular weight of approximately 100 kDa (core protein). It contains an N-terminal hyaluronan-binding domain, a central mucin-like region, and a C-terminal lectin-like domain. Brevican is anchored to the cell surface via a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) linkage or secreted into the extracellular matrix. It interacts with hyaluronan, tenascin-R, and other matrix components to stabilize perineuronal nets. In gliomas, brevican promotes tumor cell invasion by modulating cell-matrix interactions.