Title: perforin
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - perforin
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.13549
Status: current

Definition
Molecule produced by cytotoxic T cells and natural killer (NK) cells that, like complement component C9, polymerizes to form a pore in the membrane of the target cell leading to cell death.

Related Terms
- cytotoxic T cells: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13072
- natural killer (NK) cells: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13499
- target cell: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13727

Source
- PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1226 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13549/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13549/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13549/xml

Citation: Citation: 'perforin' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13549
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Accessed: 2026-05-14T12:05:10+00:00