Elastic fibers are an abundant and integral part of many extracellular matrices, in which they provide the elastic properties to tissues such as arterial, lung, and skin. The protein is rich in hydrophobic amino acids such as glycine and proline, which form mobile hydrophobic regions bounded by crosslinks between lysine residues. Degradation products of the encoded protein, known as elastin-derived peptides or elastokines, bind the elastin receptor complex and other receptors and stimulate migration and proliferation of monocytes and skin fibroblasts.
