Polyclonal Antibody to DFF40 (human) (IN)

Apoptosis is related to many diseases and induced by a family of death receptors and their ligands. Cell death signals are transduced by death domain containing adapter molecules and membres of the caspase family of proteases. Finally leading to the degradation of chromosomal DNA by activated DNase. A mouse DNase that causes DNA fragmentation was identified and designated CAD for caspase activated deoxyribonuclease [1,2]. The human homologue of mouse CAD was termed CPAN, DFF40 and human CAD, respectively [3-5]. DFF45/ICAD is the inhibitory protein of DFF40/CAD [1,2,6]. Upon cleavage of DFF45/ICAD by activated caspase, DFF40/CAD is released from the DFF45/ICAD complex and activated and eventually causes the degradation of DNA in the nuclei. Activation of DFF40/CAD, degradation which causes DNA is the hallmark of apoptotic cell death [2,7].