Anti-Internexin alpha Antibody, CT Antibody

Alpha-Internexin (UniProt: P23565; also known as Alpha-Inx) is encoded by the Ina (also known as Inexa) gene (Gene ID: 24503) in rat. Alpha-Internexin is class IV neuronal intermediate filament that self-assemble. It can function as a homodimer to form an independent structural network or may cooperate with NF-L protein to form the filamentous backbone to which Neurofilament medium (NEFM) and neurofilament heavy (NEFH) polypeptides attach to form the cross-bridges. It may also cooperate with the neuronal intermediate filament protein PRPH to form filamentous networks. It plays a role in the morphogenesis of neurons. It is expressed in large amounts early in neuronal development but is downregulated in many neurons as the development progresses. At embryonic day 16, when the expression of neurofilament-light (NF-L) is limited to a relatively small number of neurons and at low expression, alpha-internexin levels are found to be significantly higher. It has also been reported that despite a postnatal decline in expression, alpha-internexin is abundant as the triplet (NF-L, NF-M, and NF-H) in the adult CNS and exists in a relatively fixed stoichiometry with these subunits. Overexpression of alpha-internexin in transgenic mice results in the formation of cerebellar torpedoes. These torpedoes appear as swellings in Purkinje cell axons. Their presence results in the degeneration and ultimate death of the Purkinje cells. (Ref.: Kaplan, MP., et al. (1990). J. Neurosci. 10(8); 2735-2748; Evans, J., et al. (2002). J. Neurophysiol. 87(2); 1076-1085; Yuan, A., et al. (2006). J. Neurosci. 26(39); 10006-10019).