α7 nAChR, Novus Biologicals, NBP1-79948

Western blotting results obtained with Lot No QC42753-42341 of this antibody did not show any significant differences between GH4C1 cells transfected with rat α7 nAChR and untransfected control cells.

For further information see: Evaluating Commercially Available Antibodies for Rat alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Garg and Loring, Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry 2017. Vol. 65(9) 499-512 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28763248

This antibody was evaluated in a study of commercially available antibodies against rat alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors (α7 nAChR). Seven antibodies were included in the study and tested in the applications Western blotting and fluorescent immunocytochemistry.

Both tests were performed using the rat pituitary cell line GH4C1, which has no endogenous expression of α7 nAChR. For immunofluorescence, antibody staining of native cells was compared with staining of cells transfected with rat α7 nAChR cDNA. Expression of α7 nAChR in GH4C1 was confirmed by RT-PCR. The same two cell-lines were used for Western blotting, together with GH4C1 cells transfected with C-terminally GFP tagged α7 nAChR or GFP.

This antibody (Lot No QC0391-42133) was tested in two different dilutions for immunostaining. Diluted 1:100 the antibody resulted in similar staining of transfected and untransfected cells, but a 1:1000 dilution of the antibody showed significant difference between the two cell lines. In Western blotting bands of expected size were detected in α7 nAChR and α7 nAChR-GFP cells. Both bands were absent in control cells. However, multiple non-specific background bands were detected in all cell lines.

For further information see: Evaluating Commercially Available Antibodies for Rat alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
Garg and Loring, Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry 2017. Vol. 65(9) 499-512 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28763248