Polyclonal antibody to Survivin

Survivin is a member of the family of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP), and is involved in both the control of apoptosis and regulation of cell division. IAPs suppress mitochondria-dependent and -independent apoptosis by binding to and inhibiting caspases through their BIR domains.It is a 142 amino acid protein with an approximate molecular weight of 16.5 kDa. Structurally, survivin is composed of a single BIR domain and an extended COOH-terminal a-helical coiled-coil domain and is highly expressed in embryonic and fetal organs.Survivin is undetectable in most normal differentiated and non-proliferating tissues, but is highly expressed in majority of human tumor types including lung, breast, colon, gastric, leukemias, neuroblastoma, brain tumors, pheochromocytoma, soft tissue sarcomas, melanomas and other skin tumors. Additionally, survivin expression has also been detected in a variety of preneoplastic or benign leisons, suggesting that re-expression of survivin may occur early during malignant transformation or following a disruption in the balance between cell division and apoptosis.