Apoptosis or programmed-cell death is a physiological process essential for the normal development and maintenance of homeostasis in many organisms.
This “cellular suicide” can be mediated by the Fas antigen (CD95, APO1), a cell-surface glycoprotein, 40-50kD, that belongs to the nerve growth factor/tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor family.
Mice carrying the lymphoproliferation (lpr) mutation, which develop lymphoadenopathy and suffer from a systematic lupus erythematosus-like autoimmune disease, have defects in the Fas gene.
Fas is expressed in several tissues including blood, where it expression is upregulated on activated T and B lymphocytes and natural killer cells.
Binding of the Fas antigen by agonistic anti-Fas antibody has been shown to induce apoptosis.
Applications:Suitable for use in Immunoprecipitation, ELISA and Western Blot.