Connexin 43 (phospho Ser368) Antibody

Gap junctional intercellular communication is thought to play a key role in development and may also be involved in epilepsy (Aronica et al., 2001) . Connexin 43 forms gap-junctional channels and regulates the permeability of these gap junctions to small organic molecules. Permeability of connexin 43 is known to be regulated by phosphorylation at Ser368 by protein kinase C (Yogo et al., 2002; Bao et al., 2004a) . Phosphorylation of Ser368 by PKC induces a conformational change of connexin 43 that results in a decrease in gap junction permeability (Bao et al., 2004b) .

The antibody has been directly tested for reactivity in Western blots with rat tissue. It is anticipated that the antibody will react with bovine, canine, chicken, guinea pig, human, mouse and zebra fish based on the fact that these species have 100% homology with the amino acid sequence used as antigen.

Aronica E, Gorter JA, Jansen GH, Leenstra S, Yankaya B, Troost D (2001) Expression of connexin 43 and connexin 32 gap-junction proteins in epilepsy-associated brain tumors and in the perilesional epileptic cortex. Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 101:449-459.

Bao X, Altenberg GA, Reuss L (2004a) Mechanism of regulation of the gap junction protein connexin 43 by protein kinase C-mediated phosphorylation. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 286:C647-C654.

Bao X, Reuss L, Altenberg GA (2004b) Regulation of purified and reconstituted connexin 43 hemichannels by protein kinase C-mediated phosphorylation of Serine 368. J Biol Chem 279:20058-20066.