GFAP Monoclonal Antibody (GA5), eFluor™ 660, eBioscience™, Invitrogen™

Description

Description: This GA5 monoclonal antibody reacts with human, mouse, rat, chicken, rabbit, and pig glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). This 49-kDa type III intermediate filament protein is expressed in neural tissues and distinguishes astrocytes from other glial cells during central nervous system development. Three alternative splice variants of GFAP exist; however, alpha-GFAP is the predomit form expressed in astrocytes. GFAP can co-assemble with vimentin and nestin in astrocytes, but such associations are not required for assembly. Like other intermediate filaments, GFAP assembly is dependent on phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of the N-terminal domain. Studies have demonstrated that mutations in the GFAP gene lead to Alexander disease. Moreover, GFAP has also been shown to be overexpressed in certain glial-derived tumors. Applications Reported: This GA5 antibody has been reported for use in intracellular staining followed by flow cytometric analysis, immunohistochemical staining of frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections, and immunocytochemistry. Applications Tested: This GA5 antibody has been tested by immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed paraffin embedded human tissue using low pH antigen retrieval and can be used at less than or equal to 10 μg/mL. It is recommended that the antibody be carefully titrated for optimal performance in the assay of interest. eFluor™ 660 is a replacement for Alexa Fluor™ 647.

GFAP (Glial fibrillary acidic protein) is a member of the class III intermediate filament protein family. GFAP is heavily and specifically expressed in astrocytes and certain astroglia of the central nervous system, in satellite cells of peripheral ganglia, and in non-myelinating Schwann cells of peripheral nerves. In addition, neural stem cells strongly express GFAP. Antibodies to GFAP are very useful as markers of astrocytic cells. In addition, many types of brain tumor, presumably derived from astrocytic cells, heavily express GFAP. GFAP is also found in the lens epithelium, Kupffer cells of the liver, in some cells in salivary tumors and has been reported in erythrocytes. GFAP is used as a marker to distinguish astrocytes from other glial cells during development. Mutations in this gene cause Alexander disease, a rare disorder of astrocytes in the central nervous system. Alternative splicing of the GFAP gene results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms.