ser·pin
n [serine proteinase inhibitor] : any of a group of structurally related proteins that typically are serine protease inhibitors (as antithrombin and antitrypsin) whose inhibiting activity is conferred by an active site in a highly variable and mobile peptide loop and that include some (as ovalbumin and angiotensinogen) which have apparently lost the inhibitory action due to mutation in the course of evolutionary change .
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