Survivin Polyclonal Antibody, Invitrogen™

Description

• Survivin (IAP4) is the smallest member of the Inhibitors of Apoptosis Protein (IAP) gene family
• The IAPs are involved in multiple cell functions such as cell signaling, cell division, metabolism, and exhibits differential expression in nearly all human cancers, but not in most normal tissues
• IAP family members usually contain multiple baculovirus IAP repeat (BIR) domains, but the Survivin gene encodes proteins with only a single BIR domain
• The encoded proteins also lack a C-terminus RING finger domain
• Gene expression is high during fetal development and in most tumors yet low in adult tissues
• Antisense transcripts are involved in the regulation of survivin’s gene expression
• Survivin is expressed in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle in a cycle-regulated manner
• At the beginning of mitosis, survivin associates with microtubules of the mitotic spindle in a specific and saturable reaction that is regulated by microtubule dynamics
• Disruption of survivin-microtubule interactions results in loss of survivin's anti-apoptosis function and increased caspase-3 activity, a mechanism involved in cell death, during mitosis
• Survivin may counteract a default induction of apoptosis in G2/M phase
• Survivin is also abundantly expressed in brain tissues (astrocytes and some neurons) of adult rats following traumatic brain injury
• Survivin has been found co-expressed with NeuN (mature neuronal marker) and PCNA (a cell cycle protein)
• Survivin might affect regulation of neural cell proliferative responses after brain injury
• At least four transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been found for this gene, but the full-length natures of only three of them have been determined
• The overexpression of survivin in cancer may overcome this apoptotic checkpoint and favor aberrant progression of transformed cells through mitosis.