Rabbit Polyclonal Antibody to MAP2, RPCA-MAP2ABCD

      Microtubules are 25nm diameter protein rods found in eukaryotic cells and are associated with a family of proteins called microtubule associated proteins (MAPs). MAPs play a crucial role in the regulation of microtubule dynamics and interactions in vivo. MAP2 was originally named as one of the higher molecular weight MAPs with an SDS-PAGE molecular weight of about 280kDa (1-3). There is a single mammalian MAP2 gene which may generates two high molecular weight proteins of ~280kDa named MAP2A and MAP2B and multiple lower molecular weight forms usually named MAP2C and MAP2D which run on SDS-PAGE gels at 60-70kDa. The lower molecular weight forms are found in neurons early in development, but later are replaced by the higher molecular weight forms (2). The MAP2A and MAP2B forms include a protein insert missing in MAP2C and MAP2D which forms fine filamentous protrusions from the sides of brain microtubules referred to as the "projection domain". This antibody was made against the projection domain sequences and so is specific for MAP2A and MAP2B. MAP2 isoforms are expressed only in neuronal perikarya and dendrites so appropriate antibodies are used to identify these structures in cell culture and sections (for example images in references 4-8 used EnCor MAP2 antibodies).

Chromogenic Immunostaining of a 4% paraformaldehyde fixed paraffin embedded rat cerebellum section with rabbit pAb to MAP2ABCD, RPCA- MAP2ABCD, dilution 1:4,000. Staining was detected with DAB (brown) using the Vector Elite ABC-HRP detection and reagents with citra buffer retrieval. Hematoxylin (blue) was used as the counterstain. RPCA-MAP2ABCD strongly labels Purkinje cell perikarya and dendrites in the molecular layer and also granule cells in the granular layer. This antibody performs well with both 4% PFA and standard NBF fixed rat, mouse and human tissues. Mouse select image for larger view.

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