Chicken Polyclonal Antibody to MBP
Cat# CPCA-MBP

Myelin Basic Protein (MBP) is one of the major proteins of the myelin sheath surrounding axons in the nervous system. Since it is of relatively low molecular weight and high abundance the protein sequence was determined from purified protein over 30 years ago (1). The protein is made by oligodendrocytes in the central and nervous system, so antibodies to MBP are good markers of this cell type. In the peripheral nervous system MBP is expressed by myelinating Schwann cells so this antibody can be used to identify these cells in culture or sections. In the central nervous system four different forms of the protein made by alternate transcription from a single gene, the protein products having molecular weights of 21.5, 20.5, 18.5, and 17.2kDa in humans. The single gene of rodents also produces 4 different proteins, but of slightly different sizes, 21.5, 18.5, 17 and 14kDa. Some interest has focused on MBP as a potentially significant auto-antigen involved in mouse models of multiple sclerosis (MS, 3) and in human patients (4). Detection of MBP released into blood and CSF has some potential as a surrogate biomarker of demyelination and axonal loss in MS and other relevant damage and disease states (e.g. 5).
The CPCA-MBP antibody was made against a preparation of MBP purified from bovine brain. It can be used to identify oligodendrocytes and Schwann cells in neural cell culture, to visualize myelin sheaths and myelinating cells in sections and to probe western blots for MBP gene products. The antibody is also rather insensitive to aldehyde fixation and so can be used in immunohistochemistry of paraffin sections. The antibody binds all four of isoforms of MBP on western blots. In contrast our mouse monoclonal MCA-7D2 binds only the 21.5kDa and 18.5kDa rat isotypes, mapping the epitope to the product on one exon, while our MCA-7G7 binds all four isoforms. We also market a goat polyclonal antibody to MBP GPCA-MBP. A sequence alignment of the four CNS MBP isotypes in human and rat can be downloaded from here. Mouse select image at left for larger view.