CD3 PE-Cyanine 5

The monoclonal UCHT1 clone recognizes CD3ε antigen, a 20KDa transmembrane cell-surface protein that belongs to the immunoglobulin superfamily. The CD3 complex contains a CD3γ chain, a CD3δ chain, and two CD3ε chains. These chains associate with a molecule known as the T-cell receptor (TCR) and the ζ-chain (zeta-chain) to generate an activation signal in T lymphocytes. CD3ε is expressed on T lymphocytes, NK-T cells, and to varying degrees on developing thymocytes. CD3 plays central roles in TCR signaling, T lymphocyte activation, and antigen recognition. Crosslinking of the TCR via plate bound UCHT1 monoclonal is widely used to study the activation T cell response in vitro.