TERT

By Jamshed Arslan Pharm.D.

A tissue microarray is a fairly recent high-throughput application that allows researchers to test hundreds of tissue samples with antibodies of their choice at once.  Essentially, a tissue microarray is a paraffin block that is produced by a composition of tissue cores from paraffin donor blocks within defined coordinates to account for a variety of tissue types.

Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme essential for eukaryotic chromosomal termini replication. It is a useful marker as it is active only in progenitor and most cancer cells, but inactive or (active at very low activity) in normal somatic cells.

In December 2009, researchers at the University of Southern California cited using Novus’ mouse monoclonal Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase Antibody (cat# NB100-317) [PMID: 19923445]. Specifically, Novus’ hTERT antibody was used for immunofluorescent staining on human gingiva-derived mesenchymal stem cells (GMSC).