Novel astrocyte-specific monoclonal antibodies

Specific antibodies are essential for reliable neural cell studies, especially for cell types with high diversity, such as astrocytes. GFAP, the most commonly used astrocyte marker, is a reliable marker for reactive astrocytes. However, non-reactive astrocytes located in healthy CNS tissue or remote from CNS lesions are difficult to be detected by GFAP immunohistochemical staining¹.

Unlike GFAP, GLAST (EAAT1, Slc1a3) is found on virtually all astrocytes, including reactive and non-reactive astrocytes, throughout the brain, e.g., in the cerebellum, cortex, and hippocampus. After successful generation of the first monoclonal anti-GLAST antibody² by Miltenyi Biotec, a second astrocyte-specific antibody was also developed by immunizing rats with astrocytes isolated from GFAP-EGFP transgenic mice: The Anti-ACSA-2 (anti-astrocyte cell surface antigen-2) antibody.

Immunocytochemical, immunohistochemical, and flow cytometric analyses show that the ACSA-2 antigen is specifically expressed on GLAST-positive astrocytes and that the Anti-ACSA-2 antibody is highly specific for all astrocyte lineage cells, both neonatal and adult³ (fig. 1). Recently the ubiquitously expressed astrocyte protein ATP1B2 was identified as ACSA-2 epitope and the Anti-ACSA-2 antibody was recommended as the “first-choice method for astrocyte isolation and characterization”⁴. 

Interested? Try our unique astrocyte-specific antibodies and benefit from:

• Monoclonal astrocyte-specific antibody recognizing astrocyte cell membrane antigen
• Pan marker for both, non-reactive and reactive astrocytes
• Tested for immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and flow cytometry analysis
  

References:

1. Sofroniew, M.V. et al. (2010) Astrocytes: biology and pathology. Acta Neuropathologica 119(1): 7–35. (PMID: 20012068)
2. Jungblut, M. et al. (2012) Isolation and characterization of living primary astroglial cells using the new GLAST-specific monoclonal antibody ACSA-1. Glia 60(6): 894-907. (PMID: 22374709)
3. Kantzer, C.G. et al. (2017) Anti-ACSA-2 defines a novel monoclonal antibody for prospective isolation of living neonatal and adult astrocytes. Glia 65(6): 990-1004. (PMID: 28317180)
4. Batiuk, M.Y. et al. (2017) An immunoaffinity-based method for isolating ultrapure adult astrocytes based on ATP1B2 targeting by the ACSA-2 antibody. J Biol Chem 292(21): 8874-8891. (PMID: 28373281)