GAPDH is a 146kD tetramer glycolytic pathway metabolic enzyme composed of four 30-40 kDa subunits. It is responsible for reversibly phosphorylating its substrate glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate within the glycolytic pathway. Apart from its role in glycolysis, GAPDH may have other roles such as transcriptional activation. Due to its housekeeping role, GAPDH is highly expressed in almost all tissues, allowing its use as an internal loading control (traditionally for mRNA expression comparisons, but also in protein studies. The GAPDH antibody is an established standard as evidenced by its usage in a wide range of scientific research and published literature. GAPDH is reported to bind to a variety of other proteins, including the amyloid precursor protein. Associations with actin and tubulin have also been reported. The protein may also have a role in the regulation of apoptosis. Shin et al employed the GAPDH antibody in their prostate cancer (PCa) studies, where they examined the role of secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC) in modulating tumor metastatic and invasive genes triggered through the integrin beta-1 pathway1. Their data indicates that SPARC suppresses proliferation and migration via an integrin beta-1-dependent pathway. An interesting Nature publication relied upon the GAPDH antibody to establish a connection between p53-mediated metabolism and senescence2. GAPDH antibody was used by Brosseu’s group to prove ovarian tumors for cancer-associated splicing isoforms3. Their experiments help to shed light on how such alternative splicing events are triggered by differentially expressed splicing factors, and how these events modify the tumor microenvironment. Stem cell studies with the GAPDH antibody to demonstrate that umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells can rescue ischemia-stricken brain cells by effectively blocking apoptosis4. Additionally, in a very recent publication from Alidousty’s lab, the GAPDH antibody was used to help to probe the underlying mechanism for Y-box (YB) protein-1 control of monocyte differentiation5. Their data indicates that YB-1 phosphorylation is required and can be blocked by calcineurin(CN).
Novus Biologicals offers GAPDH/G3PDH reagents for your research needs including:
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