Follistatin (FS) was initially identified as a follicle-stimulating hormone inhibiting substance found in ovarian follicular fluid. It has since been shown that FS is a high‑affinity activin-binding protein that can act as an activin antagonist. Two alternatively spliced follistatin mRNAs, encoding mature FS with 288 amino acid (aa) residues (FS-288) and 315 aa residues (FS-315), exist. Natural FS purified from porcine ovaries is primarily a carboxy-terminal truncated form of FS-315 composed of 300 aa residues. The recombinant human FS-300 produced at R&D Systems contains 301 aa residues and represents a molecular form derived from human FS‑315 containing a truncation of 15 residues from the carboxy–terminus. FS-288 binds with high‑affinity to cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans whereas FS-315 binds with low-affinity. The binding affinity of R&D Systems’ FS-300 to heparan sulfate has not been determined. Cell surface-associated FS has been suggested to play a role in the clearance and bioavailability of activin in vivo. Besides activin, FS has also been shown to bind with multiple BMPs and to inhibit BMP activity in early Xenopus embryos. FS deficient mice have been shown to have multiple embryonic defects that will result in death shortly after birth. Overexpression of FS can also cause reproductive defects in transgenic mice. Over aa 30-329, human Follistatin shares 97% aa identity with mouse Follistatin.

References

Iemura, S. et al. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95:9337
Guo, Q. (1998) Mol. Endocrinol. 12:96
Hashimoto, O. et al. (1997) J. Biol. Chem. 272:13835

Alternate Names

FS, FST

Entrez Gene IDs

10468 (Human); 14313 (Mouse)

Gene Symbol

FST

UniProt

P19883

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Product Specific Notices

This product is provided under an intellectual property license from Life Technologies Corporation. The transfer of this product is conditioned on the buyer using the purchased product solely in research conducted by the buyer, excluding contract research or any fee for service research, and the buyer must not (1) use this product or its components for (a) diagnostic, therapeutic or prophylactic purposes; (b) testing, analysis or screening services, or information in return for compensation on a per-test basis; or (c) manufacturing or quality assurance or quality control, and/or (2) sell or transfer this product or its components for resale, whether or not resold for use in research. For information on purchasing a license to this product for purposes other than as described above, contact Life Technologies Corporation, 5781 Van Allen Way, Carlsbad, CA 92008 USA or outlicensing@thermofisher.com.

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Human/Mouse Follistatin Alexa Fluor™ Plus 488-conjugated Antibody

R&D Systems, part of Bio-Techne | Catalog # AF669AFP488

Key Product Details

Species Reactivity

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Antibody Source

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Product Specifications

Specificity

Clonality

Host

Isotype

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Immunohistochemistry

Western Blot

Neutralization

Background: Follistatin