Purified Anti-Rat CD44H Antibody[OX-49]

The OX-49 antibody reacts with the glycoprotein CD44H (also known as CD44s) expressed on most leukocytes, except for a subset of B lymphocytes, and at greatly increased levels on T- and B-cell blasts. The epitope recognized by OX-49 antibody has been mapped to a region on both the standard, CD44s, and the splice variant, CD44v, isoforms of CD44. However, recent reports indicate that OX-49 antibody cannot detect the CD44v isoform, possibly due to conformational changes in the epitope. CD44 is a cell adhesion receptor, and its ligand, hyaluronate, is a common component of extracellular matrices. Protein function: Cell-surface receptor that plays a role in cell-cell interactions, cell adhesion and migration, helping them to sense and respond to changes in the tissue microenvironment. Participates thereby in a wide variety of cellular functions including the activation, recirculation and homing of T-lymphocytes, hematopoiesis, inflammation and response to bacterial infection. Engages, through its ectodomain, extracellular matrix components such as hyaluronan/HA, collagen, growth factors, cytokines or proteases and serves as a platform for signal transduction by assembling, via its cytoplasmic domain, protein complexes containing receptor kinases and membrane proteases. Such effectors include PKN2, the RhoGTPases RAC1 and RHOA, Rho-kinases and phospholipase C that coordinate signaling pathways promoting calcium mobilization and actin-mediated cytoskeleton reorganization essential for cell migration and adhesion [The UniProt Consortium]