Anti-ATF2 (Ser490,498) Antibody

The activating transcription factor ATF2 (also called CRE-BP1) binds to both AP-1 and CRE DNA response elements and is a member of the ATF/CREB family of leucine zipper proteins (Maekawa et al., 1989). ATF2 has been implicated in the transcriptional regulation of a number of genes including cytokines, cell cycle control and apoptosis. Various forms of cellular stress, including inflammatory cytokines and UV irradiation, stimulate the transcriptional activity of ATF2 (Ivanov et al., 2003; Morton et al., 2004). Stress induced ATFdependent transcription is dependent on phosphorylation of ATF (Fuchs et al., 2000); Morton et al., 2004). Serine 490 and serine 498 are novel phosphorylation sites on ATF that have recently been identified. ATF2 is particularly abundant in the brain and the ATF2 family of transcription factors is considered an important substrate of signals upstream of the activation of genes associated with neuronal growth and differentiation (Karin and Hunter, 1995). ATF expression has also been linked to the depression in humans (Laifenfeld et al., 2004).