Adhesion and ECM Assay Kits
Extracellular Matrix and Cell Adhesion
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a fibrous scaffold that facilitates or influences cellular migration, differentiation and growth through variations in fiber strength, flexibility, shape, and overall surface topography. The composition of the ECM is different from tissue to tissue and is comprised of over 1,000 proteins and glycoproteins such as collagens, laminins, proteoglycans, fibronectin, elastin, laminin, and tenascin.
Cell-to-cell or cell-to-ECM adhesion occurs through the interactions between the ECM, cellular adhesion receptors and adhesion molecules (ie., integrins). Without this cooperative interaction the formation of differentiated tissues and organs would not be possible.
The ECM is constantly being remodeled partly through the action of proteases (ie., Aggrecanase, Elastase, Matriptase, MMP’s) and if uncontrolled can lead to diseases related to the organs including the heart (ie., myocardial fibrosis), lung (ie., pulmonary fibrosis), and cancers. AnaSpec is pleased to offer a variety of ECM and Cell Adhesion protease activity assay kits ideal for high throughput screening drug discovery of protease inhibitors and protease activators.
FRET substrates
FRET occurs between a peptide tagged to a donor and an acceptor when placed within 10-100Å of each other resulting in the donor’s excitation fluorescence to be quenched by the acceptor. Enzymatic hydrolysis of the peptide results in recovery of the donor fluorescence following spatial separation of the donor and acceptor upon energy transfer.
| Dye (donor) | Quencher (acceptor) | Donor Ex/Em | |
| SensoLyte® 390 | Mca | Dnp |
•
325/393 nm |
|---|---|---|---|
| SensoLyte® 490 | EDANS | DABCYL |
•
340/490 nm |
| SensoLyte® 520 | 5-FAM or HiLyte™ Fluor 488 | QXL®520 |
•
494/521 nm |
| SensoLyte® 570 | 5-TAMRA | QXL®570 |
•
547/574 nm |
Fluorogenic substrates
These substrates do not require a quencher and contain a C-terminal dye that does not fluoresce until it is cleaved from the peptide (fluorescent form of dye is released).
| Dye (donor) | Donor Ex/Em | |
| SensoLyte® AMC | AMC |
•
351/430 nm |
|---|---|---|
| SensoLyte® AFC | AFC |
•
382/480 nm |
| SensoLyte® Rh110 | Rh110 |
•
501/527 nm |