The protein encoded by this gene belongs to the cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE) family, and PDE4 subfamily. This PDE hydrolyzes the second messenger, cAMP, which is a regulator and mediator of a number of cellular responses to extracellular signals. Thus, by regulating the cellular concentration of cAMP, this protein plays a key role in many important physiological processes. Alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been described for this gene.[provided by RefSeq, Jul 2011].