The Rat401 antibody reacts with mouse and rat nestin, a > 170 kDa Class VI intermediate filament (IF) protein expressed in neuroepithelial stem and progenitor cells and some other cell types, including pancreatic islet progenitor cells, angiogenic endothelial cells, glioma cells, and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells. Expression is down-regulated following neural differentiation, and within the adult nervous system is limited mainly to progenitor cells in the cortical subventricular zone, the hippocampal dentate gyrus, dorsal root ganglia satellite cells, and a subpopulation of Schwann cells. Nestin assembles into heterodimers with vimentin or α-internexin by a phosphorylation-dependent process to form IFs and is thus involved in structural organization of the cell. It is required for the survival, renewal, and proliferation of neural progenitor cells and may also be involved in growth cone guidance during neuronal differentiation. During differentiation, nestin-containing filaments are replaced by cell type-specific IFs such as GFAP.

This antibody clone has been verified for labeling neural stem and progenitor cells grown with NeuroCult™ Proliferation Kit (Mouse & Rat; Catalog #05702).