CD94 Antibody

CD94 (also NK cell receptor, KLRD1 and KP43) is a 27‑31 kDa glycoprotein member of the C-type lectin superfamily. It is expressed on NK cells, particularly those that are CD56^bright, plus those that are CD56^dim but secrete material amounts of IFN-gamma. CD94 forms covalent transmembrane (TM) heterodimers with NKG2A, B, C, E and H, and binds HLA-E (in human; Qa-1b in mouse) as part of a cellular homeostatic monitoring system. Amide-linkage based complexes with NKG2A are predicted to run at 70-80 kDa in SDS-PAGE. Depending upon the exact NKG2 partner, CD94 ligation can result in either NK cell activation (2C, 2H or 2E) or inhibition (2A or 2B). Human CD94 is a 179 amino acid (aa) type II TM protein. It possesses a short cytoplasmic segment (aa 1-10) plus a 158 aa extracellular region (aa 32-179) that contains one C-type lectin domain (aa 61-176). Multiple splice variants exist. One is a 149 aa, 19 kDa cytosolic protein that shows an Ala substitution for aa 3-34, while a second is a truncated, 104 aa, 17 kDa TM protein. A third isoform is 158 aa in length and 25 kDa in size, and shows a deletion of aa 34-54. Over aa 32-179, human CD94 shares 53% aa identity with mouse CD94.