Apoptosis is related to many diseases and induced by a family of cell death receptors and their ligands. Cell death signals are transduced by death domain containing adapter molecules and members of the caspase family of proteases. The mammalian homologous of the key cell death gene CED-4 in C. elegans was identified recently from human and mouse and designated Apaf1 for apoptosis protease- activating factor 1 (1,2). Apaf1 binds to cytochrome c (Apaf2) and caspase-9 (Apaf3), which leads to caspase-9 activation. Activated caspase-9 in turn cleaves and activates caspase-3 that is one of the key proteases, being responsible for the proteolytic cleavage of many key proteins in apoptosis (3). Apaf1 can also associate with caspase-4 and caspase-8 (4). Apaf1 transcript is ubiquitously expressed in human tissues (1).

Suitable for use in immunohistochemistry. Other applications not tested.

Immunohistochemistry: 5-10 ug/ml Optimal dilutions to be determined by the researcher.

K562 cells

May be stored at 4°C for short-term only. For long-term storage and to avoid repeated freezing and thawing, add sterile glycerol (40-50%), aliquot and store at -20°C. Aliquots are stable for at least 12 months at -20°C. For maximum recovery of product, centrifuge the original vial after thawing and prior to removing the cap. Further dilutions can be made in assay buffer.

Synthetic peptide, Apaf1 antibody was raised against a peptide corresponding to aa near the carboxy terminus of human Apaf1.

Supplied as a liquid in PBS, pH 7.2, 0.02% sodium azide.

Purified by immunoaffinity chromatography.

Recognizes human Apaf1. Species Crossreactivity: mouse and rat.