Histonetters,

Someone on the net recently suggested that anti-hu antibodies aren't
available.
This isn't true.  The Monoclonal Facility here at the University of Oregon has
made an anti-hu monoclonal.  Mike Marusich, who directs the monoclonal
facility, wanted me to post the following note on the availability and
characteristics of this anti-hu antibody.

Karen Larison - University of Oregon

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Anti-Hu MAb 16A11 is a robust early marker of vertebrate
neurogenesis.  The antigen(s) detected by MAb 16A11 are expressed
concomitant with or shortly after neuronal terminal mitosis, and are
expressed at high levels in neuron cell bodies.  The exclusive cell
body expression of neuronal Hu proteins makes Anti-Hu MAb 16A11
extremely useful for enumeration of early neurons (unlike
neurofilament and neurofilament associated proteins).

MAb 16A11 is a mouse IgG2b  that binds specifically to a conserved
peptide epitope present in most known members of the Hu family of
vertebrate neuronal proteins.  Thus, MAb 16A11 binds to human proteins
HuD and HuDpro (alternatively spliced forms of the HuD gene product)
as well as HuC (the HuC gene product).  In addition, the epitope
recognized by MAb 16A11 is present in the predicted amino acid
 sequences of HuCLS (an alternatively spliced form of the HuC gene
product), and Hel-N1 (the gene product of the third member of the
mammalian Hu gene family).  The only known Hu protein isoform that
does not contain the amino acid domain recognized by MAb 16A11
is HuDmex, which is a minor constituent of the Hu proteins present in
 human brain.  Western blot immunoassays of human, mouse, avian
and fish neural tissue extracts, and recombinant human HuD and HuC
 proteins were used to document the specificity of antibody binding to
Hu proteins.  Particle Concentration Fluorescence Immunoassays of
synthetic peptides were used to identify the 16A11 epitope.
Immunohistochemical analyses of human, mouse, avian and fish
tissues documented the tissue and developmental patterns of Hu
protein-immunoreactivity.

Reference:

Marusich, M. F., Furneaux, H. M., Henion, P., Weston, J. A. (1994).
Hu neuronal proteins are expressed in proliferating neurogenic cells.
J. Neurobiol. 25, 143-155.

To facilitate distribution of this reagent, an initial sample of MAb
16A11 will be provided at no charge to any investigator who requests
it.  However, additional samples require payment of $120 per 275 ug
sample to recover production and distribution costs.

For more information contact:

Michael Marusich, Ph.D.
Director Monoclonal Antibody Facility
Institute of Neuroscience
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1254

ph:  541-346-5688
fax: 541-346-4548
email:  marusich@uoneuro.uoregon.edu