Invitrogen™ NEFM Monoclonal Antibody (3H11)

Descripción

MA1-2011 detects the neurofilament, medium chain in human and rat samples. MA1-2011 has been successfully used in Western blot, immunofluorescent, and immunoprecipitation procedures. By Western blot this antibody detects a ~160 kDa protein representing the neurofilament, medium chain in HEK 293 cells, rat spinal cord, and human frontal cortex. In immunofluorecence procedures MA1-2011 recognizes the neurofilament, medium chain in human neurons. The MA1-2011 immunogen is a synthetic peptide corresponding to a C-terminal fragment of rat neurofilament.

Neurofilaments (NFs) are a type of intermediate filament (IF) expressed almost exclusively in neuronal cells, and in those cells most prominently in large axons. NFs, in most vertebrates, are composed of three different polypeptide chains with different molecular weights - neurofilament medium protein (NF-M), high (NF-H) and light protein (NF-L), which share sequence and structural similarity in a coiled-coil core domain, but differ in the length and sequence of their N-termini and more dramatically of their C-termini which in the case of NF-M and NF-H form the flexible extensions that link NFs to each other and to other elements in the cytoplasm. NF-M protein tail-mediated interactions of neurofilaments are critical for size and cytoskeletal architecture of axons, and are mediated, in part, by the highly phosphorylated tail domain of this protein. NF-M phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation are regulated reciprocally and affect its translocation and filament formation and function. Antibodies to the various neurofilament subunits are very useful cell type markers since the proteins are among the most abundant of the nervous system, are expressed only in neurons and are biochemically very stable.