Neurofilaments are type IV intermediate filament heteropolymers composed of light, medium, and heavy chains. Neurofilaments comprise the axoskeleton and functionally maintain neuronal caliber. They may also play a role in intracellular transport to axons and dendrites. This gene encodes the medium neurofilament protein. This protein is commonly used as a biomarker of neuronal damage. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms. [provided by RefSeq, Oct 2008]
Molecular Weight(MW)
140 kDa(Observed band size: 130 kDa)
Function
Integrins are heterodimers composed of noncovalently associated transmembrane α and β subunits. The 16 α and 8 β subunits heterodimerize to produce more than 20 different receptors. Antibodies to this protein are useful to identify neurons and their processes in tissue sections and in tissue culture.