FITC Anti-Mouse CD49b Antibody

DX5 antigen has been recently characterized as CD49b. It is a 150 kD integrin α chain also known as α2 integrin, VLA-2 α chain, and integrin α2 chain. CD49b non-covalently associates with CD29 (β1 integrin) to form the CD49b/CD29 complex known as VLA-2, a receptor for collagen and laminin. CD49b is expressed on platelets, the majority of NK cells, NKT cells, and a small subset of CD8+ T cells (this population can be significantly increased following viral infection) . DX5 is used for the identification and isolation of NK cells, and is especially useful for identifying NK cells in mice lacking the NK1.1 antigen.