Stemgent® Purified Mouse anti-Human c-Myc Antibody

Stemgent® Purified Mouse anti-Human c-Myc Antibody was screened on cells transfected with a human c-Myc construct by western blot analysis and selected as the best c-Myc antibody, among those tested, for stem cell research applications. The c-Myc protein is a 62 kD transtription factor that is believed to regulate expression of 15% of all genes^1-2. c-Myc is activated upon by various mitogenic signals such as Wnt, SHH and EGF (via the MAPK/ERK pathway). By modifying the expression of its target genes, c-Myc activation results in numerous biological effects such as cell proliferation (upregulation of cyclins, downregulation of p21), regulation of cell growth (upregulation of ribosomal RNA and proteins), apoptosis (downregulation of Bcl-2), and differentiation³. c-Myc is a very strong proto-oncogene and is very often found to be upregulated in many types of cancers. Therefore c-Myc inhibitors have a great potential for cancer therapy⁴. c-Myc is one of the key transcription factors used to reprogram mouse and human fibroblasts to a pluripotent state^5-6.

1. John Gearhart. (2007) Pluripotency Redux — Advances in Stem-Cell Research. New Engl J Med 357(15):1469-1472
2. Evan GI, Hancock DC, Littlewood T, Pauza CD. (1986) Characterization of the human c-myc protein using antibodies prepared against synthetic peptides. Ciba Found Symp. 119:245-63
3. Bernhard Luscher. (2001) Function and regulation of the transcription factors of the Myc/Max/Mad network. Gene 277:1–14
4. Laura Soucek, Jonathan Whitfield, Carla P. Martins, Andrew J. Finch, Daniel J. Murphy, Nicole M. Sodir, Anthony N. Karnezis, Lamorna Brown Swigart, Sergio Nasi & Gerard I. Evan. (2008) Modelling Myc inhibition as a cancer therapy. Nature 455(2):679-683
5. Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka. (2006) Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Mouse Embryonic and Adult Fibroblast Cultures by Defined Factors. Cell 126:663–676
6. Kazutoshi Takahashi, Koji Tanabe, Mari Ohnuki, Megumi Narita, Tomoko Ichisaka, Kiichiro Tomoda, Shinya Yamanaka. (2007) Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Adult Human Fibroblasts by Defined Factors. Cell 131:861–872