Mouse Flt-3/Flk-2 Antibody

The Flt-3 (fms-like tyrosine kinase) receptor, also named Flk-2 (fetal liver kinase) and Stk-1 (stem cell tyrosine kinase) and designated CD135, is a member of the class III subfamily of receptor tyrosine kinases. This familay includes KIT, the receptor for SCF, and C-FMS, the receptor for M-CSF. The extracellular region of these receptors contains five immunoglobulin-like domains and the intracellular region contains a split kinase domain. Mouse Flt-3 cDNA encodes a 992 amino acid (aa) residue type I membrane protein with a 27 aa residue signal peptide, a 517 aa extracellular domain with 10 potential N-linked glycosylation sites, a 20 aa residue transmembrane domain and a 428 aa residue cytoplasmic domain. Mouse Flt-3 shares 85% amino acid sequence identity with human Flt-3. Flt-3 expression has been detected in various tissues, including placenta, gonads, and tissues of nervous and hematopoietic origin. Among hematopoietic cells, the expression of Flt-3 was found to be restricted to the highly enriched stem/progenitor cell populations. The ligand for Flt-3 (FL) has been identified to be a transmembrane protein with structural homology to M-CSF and SCF. Recombinant soluble Flt-3 Fc chimeric protein has been shown to bind FL with high affinity and is a potent FL antagonist.