RECOMBINANT EXPRESSION OF RAT HISTIDINE-DECARBOXYLASE - GENERATION OFANTIBODIES USEFUL FOR WESTERN-BLOT-ANALYSIS

Histidine decarboxylase catalyses the formation of histamine, an impor tant biological messenger. In spite of the essential biological functi ons exerted by histamine the knowledge about the mechanisms involved i n the regulation of histidine decarboxylase is rather limited. This is most likely due to the limited supply of suitable tools, including hi ghly specific antibodies. In the present study we describe the product ion and characterisation of specific antisera against rat histidine de carboxylase using recombinant protein synthesised in a bacterial expre ssion system. The antisera were shown to effectively immunoprecipitate histidine decarboxylase activity in extracts of fetal rat liver as we ll as to detect the histidine decarboxylase protein by Western blot an alysis of COS-7 cells expressing recombinant rat histidine decarboxyla se. The results demonstrate the successful production of highly specif ic antisera to histidine decarboxylase which may become valuable tools in future studies of the structure and function of this enzyme. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.