Human/Mouse Caspase-3 Alexa Fluor® 700-conjugated Antibody

Applications

Please Note: Optimal dilutions should be determined by each laboratory for each application. General Protocols are available in the Technical Information section on our website.

Preparation and Storage

Background: Caspase-3

Caspase-3 (Cysteine-aspartic acid protease 3/Casp3; also Yama, apopain and CPP32) is a 29 kDa member of the peptidase C14A family of enzymes (1, 2, 3). It is widely expressed and is an integral component of the apoptotic cascade. Caspase-3 is considered to be the major executioner caspase; that is, the primary downstream mediator of apoptotic-associated proteolysis (2, 3, 4). Active Caspase-3 is known to utilize a Cys residue to cleave multiple substrates, including PARP, proIL-16, PKC-gamma & -δ, procaspases 6, 7 and 9, and beta -catenin (1). Human procaspase-3 is a 32 kDa, 277 amino acid (aa) protein (5, 6, 7). Normally, it is an inactive, cytosolic homodimer, but following an upstream signal that activates processing proteases, procaspase-3 undergoes proteolytic cleavage (1, 2, 8, 9). This generates an N-terminal 175 aa p20/20 kDa subunit plus a 102 aa C-terminal p12/12 kDa subunit, followed by further processing of the p20 subunit at Asp28 to generate a final p17 subunit (aa 29-175) (9). The p17 and p12 subunits noncovalently heterodimerize, and subsequently associate with another p17/p12 heterodimer to form an active antiparallel homodimer. The p17 subunit contains the enzyme active site (aa 161-165), with an embedded catalytic Cys which is normally nitrosylated and inactive. Full activation requires both proteolytic processing and Cys163 denitrosylation (10). Multiple proteases can use Caspase-3 as a substrate including Caspase-6, -8, and -10, granzyme B, and Caspase-3 itself (9, 11, 12, 13).

Product Datasheets

Related Research Areas

• Caspases and Regulators
• Cell Structure and Signaling Molecules
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• Neurofibrillary Tangle Formation
• TNF Superfamily Regulators