MyBioSource.com's Mouse anti EpCAM/CD326/EPG-2/SCLC-CD2 epithelial antigen is a Mouse monoclonal antibody. The Mouse anti EpCAM/CD326/EPG-2/SCLC-CD2 epithelial antigen Antibody was generated using CD326, EGP40, EPCAM, EpCAM1, epithelial cell adhesion molecule, GA733-2, and HEA125 as the antigen. It reacts with Human. This antibody has been shown to work in applications such as: Flow Cytometry.
Description
The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), also known as CD326, is a 40 kD glycoprotein that is expressed at the basolateral cell membrane of simple, pseudo-stratified and transitional epithelia of normal adult tissues. EpCAM is reported to function as a homotypic calcium-independent cell adhesion molecule but studies suggest that EpCAM is also involved in cellular processes such as cell signalling, migration, proliferation and differentiation.
EpCAM is overexpressed in a wide range of human epithelial carcinomas including lung, colorectal, breast, prostate, head and neck, and hepatic carcinomas. The EpCAM molecule has, therefore, been widely used as a diagnostic marker for human carcinomas and has been considered as a potential target for immunotherapy.
Since EpCAM is also present on exosomes, microvesicles abundantly secreted by tumor cells, antibodies to this cell surface antigen are widely used for the isolation and identification of these cancer derived exosomes.
Apart from EpCAM's role in cancer syndromes, homozygous mutations in the EpCAM gene have been identified in patients suffering from congenital tufting enteropathy, a rare autosomal recessive form of intractable diarrhea of infancy.
Finally, EpCAM expression may be causally related to maintaining stem cells, and therefore will be a valuable target for future avenues to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells