NCAM1 (CD56) (E7X9M) XP^® Rabbit mAb (InTraSeq^™ 3' Conjugate 3025) #17655

NCAM (neural cell adhesion molecule, CD56) is an adhesion glycoprotein with five extracellular immunoglobulin-like domains followed by two fibronectin type III repeats. Structural diversity is introduced by alternative splicing resulting in different cytoplasmic domains (1). NCAM mediates neuronal attachment, neurite extension, and cell-cell interactions through homo and heterophilic interactions. PSA (polysialic acid) post-translationally modifies NCAM and increases the metastatic potential of small cell lung carcinoma, Wilms' tumor, neuroblastoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma (2). CD56 is commonly used along with CD3 and CD16 to identify human natural killer (NK) cells (mouse NK cells do not express CD56) (3). Human NK cells are CD3-CD56+. The large subset with high CD16 expression are mature cytotoxic NK cells, while those with low CD16 expression are immature precursors and cytokine producers (4,5).