NKX3.1 (D6D2Z) XP^® Rabbit mAb recognizes endogenous levels of total NKX3.1 protein.

Monoclonal antibody is produced by immunizing animals with recombinant protein specific to the amino terminus of human NKX3.1 protein. The epitope is near the amino terminus, in a region that is 100% conserved between isoforms 1 and 5 of human NKX3.1.

NKX3.1 is a homeobox transcription factor that in mammals plays a defining role in embryonic prostate morphogenesis. The expression of mammalian NKX3.1 is androgen-dependent, restricted primarily to developing and mature prostate epithelium, and is frequently reduced or lost in prostate cancer (1-3). The human NKX3.1 gene is located on chromsome 8p21.2, within a region that shows loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in >50% of prostate cancer cases (2). Allelic loss at the NKX3.1 locus is also common in high grade Prostate Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PIN), thought to be a putative precursor lesion to invasive prostate adenocarcinomas, suggesting that LOH at the NKX3.1 locus is a critical early step in prostate cancer development (4). Notably, the remaining NKX3.1 allele is intact in the majority of LOH cases, leading to the suggestion that NKX3.1 functions as a haploinsufficient tumor suppressor (4-6). Due to its highly restricted expression in prostate epithelial cells, NKX3.1 has been suggested as a diagnostic marker of prostate carcinoma (7), and may have additional utility as a biomarker of metastatic lesions originating in the prostate (8).