Merck, F3648-.5ML, Anti-Fibronectin antibody produced in rabbit

Antiserum is produced in rabbit using purified human fibronectin as the immunogen. Affinity isolated antibody is obtained from antiserum by immunospecific purification which removes essentially all rabbit serum proteins, including immunoglobulins, which do not specifically bind to human fibronectin. The antiserum is determined to be immunospecific for human fibronectin by immunofluorescent labeling of human fibroblast cell cultures, ELISA and immunoblotting. In immunoblotting, a specific band of fibronectin at 220 kDa is observed (another band at 94 kDa may be also be present) using human fibronectin. When used in immunoelectrophoresis, the antibody shows 1-2 arcs of precipitation versus normal human plasma. This product may be used for immunohistochemical localization of fibronectin in normal, inflamed and neoplastic tissues, for detection of fibronectin on cultured cells and structure and function studies of fibronectins in human and animal body fluids, tissues and cells. Affinity isolated antibody to human fibronectin can be used for immunofluorescent and immunoperoxidase staining of cultured cells, frozen sections and formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues. Other fixatives, e.g. methacarn and ethanol, may also be used. Fibronectin (FN) is composed of two nearly identical disulfide-bound polypeptides of molecular weight 220 kDa. Cellular fibronectin is structurally and antigenically similar to cold insoluble globulin from plasma, therefore polyclonal antibodies to either form usually cross-react. Careful analysis of the fibronectin molecule indicates that it contains several functionally and structurally distinct domains, which may bind to cell surfaces, collagen, fibrinogen or fibrin, complement, glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans and heparin. Fibronectin 1 is encoded by the gene mapped to human chromosome 2q35.