Polyclonal antibody to Caspase-6

Caspases belong to the cysteine-aspartic acid protease (Caspase) family which plays a major role in the transduction of the apoptotic signal and execution of apoptosis in mammalian cells. Caspases exist as inactive proenzymes which undergo proteolytic processing at conserved aspartic residues to produce 2 subunits, large and small, that dimerize to form the active enzyme. This protein could be processed by caspases 7, 8 and 10, and is thought to function as a downstream. Caspase 3 (CPP32) and Caspase 6 (Mch2) are the major active caspases in apoptotic cells, and are activated in response to distinct apoptosis-inducing stimuli and in all cell lines analyzed. Both CPP32 and Mch2 are present in apoptotic cells as multiple active species. Caspase-6 cleaves nuclear mitotic apparatus protein (NuMA) and mediates the shrinkage and fragmentation of nuclei.This Active/Cleaved Caspase-6 polyclonal antibody recognizes the large and small subunits of caspase-6. Whereas the antisera has a strong preference for active/cleaved caspase-6, in some cell or tissue systems or techniques the antisera may also recognize the ~34 kDa proform of caspase-6 as well as intermediate caspase-6 cleavage fragments.