Anti-PAX6: Mouse PAX6 Antibody

Pax6 is a highly conserved member of a Pax family of genes encoding transcription factors. Mammalian Pax6 genes encode predominantly two forms of the Pax6 protein, Pax6 and Pax6(5a). Pax6 contains a canonical PD. In contrast, Pax6(5a) contains a 14 amino acid insertion within the PAI domain. Pax6 plays critical roles in the organogenesis of the brain, visual, and olfactory systems, as well as peptide hormone gene expression in the pancreas. Pax6 is ubiquitously expressed in the human neural plate and is necessary and sufficient for human neuroectoderm (NE) specification. Pax6 represses pluripotent genes and activates neural genes. Mouse NE specification does not require Pax6.² In addition numerous studies have shown that Pax6 is essential for morphogenesis of the eye from its earliest stages and subsequent formation of all major ocular tissues. PAX6 was shown to act as a migration control gene during development, critical for correct migration of cells into several areas including the eye, olfactory bulb, cortex, and cerebellum. Unlike most other developmental genes, its expression is sustained into adulthood in certain areas of the brain, including certain septal, diencephalic, and midbrain nuclei, and in astrocytes and certain mature neurons of the dentate gyrus.³ In humans, heterozygous mutations in PAX6 cause a wide spectrum of ocular defects and subtle changes in the olfactory epithelium and brain. In addition, it was found that NeuroD/BETA2 is involved in the activation of the expression of PAX6 through E boxes in the PAX6 promoter.⁴ PAX6 was found to be involved in cancer development. PAX6 was overexpressed in pancreatic carcinoma cells and induced overexpression of Met which promote tumor cell growth. Inhibition of PAX6 transcription lead to a decline in cell growth.⁵ However, PAX6 was shown to suppress the tumorigenecity of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cells.