Polyclonal Antibody to TACE (CT)

Tumor-necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) is a proinflammatory cytokine and contributes to a variety of inflammatory disease responses and programmed cell death. TNF-α is synthesized as a 26kDa type II membrane-bound precursor that is cleaved by a convertase to generate secreted 17kDa mature TNF-α. TNF-α converting enzyme (TACE) protein was purified and the human and mouse TACE cDNAs were cloned by several groups separately [1-3]. TACE is a membrane-bound metalloprotease-disintegrin in the family of mammalian ADAM (for a disintegrin and metalloprotease). TACE also processes other cell surface proteins, including TNF receptor, TGFα, the L-selectin adhesion molecule, and alpha-cleavage of amyloid protein precursor (APP) [4,5]. TACE mRNA is expressed in a variety of human and mouse tissues. TACE was selected as one of the few targets in cytokine activation by the Eighth International Conference of the Inflammation Research Association [6].