Anti-CD44v4

1 mg/ml in 1X PBS, BSA free, sodium azide free. This antibody recognizes an epitope encoded by exon v4 on the variant portion of human CD44. The CD44 molecule belongs to a family of cellular adhesion molecules found on a wide range of normal and malignant cells in epithelial, mesothelial and hemopoiesis tissues. It is a single gene with 20 exons, of which 10 are normally expressed to encode the basic CD44 (H-CAM) molecule. The additional 10 exons (v1 to v10) are only expressed by alternative splicing of the nuclear RNA. The expression of specific cell adhesion molecule CD44 splice variants has been reported to be associated with metastasis in certain human malignancies. Protein function: Cell-surface receptor that plays a role in cell-cell interactions, cell adhesion and migration, helping them to sense and respond to changes in the tissue microenvironment (PubMed:16541107, PubMed:19703720, PubMed:22726066). Participates thereby in a wide variety of cellular functions including the activation, recirculation and homing of T-lymphocytes, hematopoiesis, inflammation and response to bacterial infection (PubMed:7528188). Engages, through its ectodomain, extracellular matrix components such as hyaluronan/HA, collagen, growth factors, cytokines or proteases and serves as a platform for signal transduction by assembling, via its cytoplasmic domain, protein complexes containing receptor kinases and membrane proteases (PubMed:18757307, PubMed:23589287). Such effectors include PKN2, the RhoGTPases RAC1 and RHOA, Rho-kinases and phospholipase C that coordinate signaling pathways promoting calcium mobilization and actin-mediated cytoskeleton reorganization essential for cell migration and adhesion (PubMed:15123640). [The UniProt Consortium]