6B,C) demonstrates ABT-263 mouse that they share the same epitope present in Z α1-antitrypsin, even though the mutations mediate their effects via different parts of the protein (Fig. 1). The 2C1 antibody was used to assess polymers formed by two other shutter domain mutants of α1-antitrypsin: Siiyama (Ser53Phe)26 and Brescia (Gly225Arg).27 These were transiently expressed in COS-7 cells, in parallel to M, Z, and H334D α1-antitrypsin. The cell lysates were
assessed by SDS and nondenaturing PAGE followed by western blot analysis and also by sandwich ELISA with the 2C1 mAb. All variants were efficiently expressed by COS-7 cells and showed clear intracellular signals in western blot analysis of the SDS-PAGE (Fig. 6A). The total amount of α1-antitrypsin polymers in each lysate
was determined by western blot of nondenaturing PAGE with a commercial mAb that recognizes all α1-antitrypsin (Fig. 6A, line). When the same lysates were analyzed with the 2C1 antibody (Fig. 6B), the bands corresponding to http://www.selleckchem.com/Caspase.html the monomeric forms were not recognized (compare to Fig. 6A, bracket), but the polymers formed by each variant were detected with similar intensities to the commercial mAb used in Fig. 6A. When quantified by sandwich ELISA with the 2C1 mAb, each α1-antitrypsin variant showed a signal relative to Z α1-antitrypsin that reflected the intensity seen in the western blot analysis (Fig. 6C). In this series of experiments, the high expression levels obtained in our transient transfection system caused a small amount of polymerization of M α1-antitrypsin that could be seen in the western blot in Fig. 6A
(α1-AT nondenaturing panel, M lane), and detected with the 2C1 mAb both by western blot (Fig. 6B, M lane) and by ELISA (Fig. 6C, M lane). We have previously observed polymers in COS-7 cells transfected with M α1-antitrypsin (E.M. and D.A.L., unpublished results) whereas others have reported the polymerization of the learn more wild-type serpin megsin when expressed at high levels.28 These results demonstrate that the 2C1 mAb recognizes polymers formed by different disease associated variants of α1-antitrypsin, including Z and a range of shutter domain mutants. It is possible that a mixture of different polymer types form in vivo and that mAb 2C1 detects only a portion of them in ELISA, western blot and immunocytochemistry. This possibility was assessed by using the 2C1 mAb to immunodeplete polymers formed by His334Asp α1-antitrypsin (Fig. 7). COS-7 cells were transiently transfected with either M or His334Asp α1-antitrypsin and cell lysates were collected after 24 hours expression. The polyclonal antibody removed all the α1-antitrypsin from the supernatants of both M and His334Asp α1-antitrypsin expressing cells after the second round of immunoprecipitation (Fig. 7, top panel, M and H334D α1AT, S2). In contrast, the mAb 2C1 immunoprecipitated minimal amounts of α1-antitrypsin from cells expressing the M variant (Fig.