• Purity

  >95%, by SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions and visualized by silver stain

• Endotoxin Level

  <0.01 EU per 1 μg of the protein by the LAL method.  

• Activity

  Measured by its ability to enhance neurite outgrowth of E16-E18 rat embryonic cortical neurons. rhTAFA4, immobilized at 6-24 μg/mL on a 96-well plate, is able to significantly enhance neurite outgrowth.

• Source

  E. coli-derived Ser35-Arg140

• Accession #

• N-terminal Sequence    
  Analysis

  Ser35

• Predicted Molecular Mass

  11.7 kDa

• SDS-PAGE

  11 kDa, reducing conditions

Background: TAFA4/FAM19A4

TAFA4 (also FAM19A4) is a secreted, 12 kDa member of the FAM19/TAFA family of chemokine-like proteins (1). It is synthesized as a 140 amino acid (aa) precursor that contains a 35 aa signal sequence and a 105 aa mature chain (SwissProt #: Q8N3H0). Like other members of the FAM19/TAFA family, with the exception of TAFA5, mature TAFA1 contains 10 regularly spaced cysteine residues that follow the pattern CX₇CCX₁₃CXCX₁₄CX₁₁CX₄CX₅CX₁₀C, where C represents a conserved cysteine residue and X represents any noncysteine amino acid (1). Human TAFA4 is 90% aa identical to mouse TAFA4 (1). Real-time PCR analysis indicates that TAFA4 mRNA expression is restricted to the central nervous system (CNS), with the highest level in the thalamus (1). The biological functions of TAFA family members remain to be determined, but there are a few tentative hypotheses. First, TAFAs may modulate immune responses in the CNS by functioning as brain specific chemokines, and may act with other chemokines to optimize the recruitment and activity of immune cells in the CNS (1). Second, TAFAs may represent a novel class of neurokines that act as regulators of immune nervous cells (1 - 2). And third, TAFAs may control axonal sprouting following brain injury (1).

• References:

1. Tang, Y.T. et al. (2004) Genomics 83:727.

2. Benveniste, E. (1998) Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 9:259.

• Long Name:

  Family with Sequence Similarity 19, Member A4

• Entrez Gene IDs:

  151647 (Human); 320701 (Mouse)

• Alternate Names:

  Chemokine-like protein TAFA-4; FAM19A4; family with sequence similarity 19 (chemokine (C-C motif)-like), member A4; FLJ25161; TAFA4; TAFA-4