Alpha-Smooth Muscle Actin Monoclonal Antibody (1A4), eFluor™ 660, eBioscience™, Invitrogen™

Description

• Description: The monoclonal antibody 1A4 recognizes human, mouse, and rat alpha-smooth muscle actin
• Alpha-smooth muscle actin is a 42 kDa protein and is a major component of the cytoskeletal structural network
• This 1A4 antibody is specific for the alpha form of muscle actin only, which is expressed by smooth muscle cells of blood vessels, myofibroblasts, and myoepithelial cells
• It is also expressed in the parenchyma and stroma of various tissues
• Alpha-smooth muscle actin is useful in the identification of leiomyomas, leiomycosarcomas and pleomorphic adenomas and is used as a prognostic marker for basal cell carcinoma
• Applications Reported: This 1A4 antibody has been reported for use in immunohistochemical staining of frozen tissue sections, immunohistochemical staining of formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue sections, microscopy, and immunocytochemistry
• Applications Tested: This 1A4 antibody has been tested by immunohistochemistry of formalin-fixed paraffin embedded human tissue using low pH antigen retrieval and can be used at less than or equal to 5 μg/mL
• This 1A4 antibody has been tested by immunocytochemistry of methanol-fixed and permeabilized human cells and can be used at less than or equal to 5 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
• Smooth Muscle Actin belongs to the actin family of proteins, which are highly conserved proteins that play a role in cell motility, structure and integrity
• Alpha, beta and gamma actin isoforms have been identified, with alpha actin being a major constituent of the contractile apparatus, while beta and gamma actins are involved in the regulation of cell motility
• In particular, smooth muscle actin is an alpha actin that is found in skeletal muscle
• Actin exists as a ubiquitous protein involved with filament formation that make up large portions of the cytoskeleton
• Actin filaments interact with myosin to assist in muscle contraction as well as aiding in cell motility and cytokinesis
• Smooth muscle actin is found on smooth muscle vessel walls, gut wall, myometrium, myoepithelial cells in breast and salivary glands
• Defects in the smooth muscle actin gene cause aortic aneurysm familial thoracic type 6
• Actin isoforms differ slightly in their N-terminus and the sequences of each are perfectly conserved in higher vertebrates
• Alpha-smooth muscle actin is abundant in vascular and visceral smooth muscle cells
• In addition, it has also been shown that smooth muscle actin appear in stress fibers of fibroblastic cells during pathological situations involving contractile phenomena such as wound healing and fibrocontractive diseases
• Multiple alternatively spliced variants of smooth muscle actin have been identified.