Abstract

Pleckstrin homology domain and leucine rich repeat protein phosphatase 1 (PHLPP1) is a member of the serine/threonine family of phosphatases. It has been studied in organs including brain, heart, pancreas, adipose, breast, and prostate. Human PHLPP1 encodes two splice variants - PHLPP1α (~140-150 kDa) and PHLPP1β (~180-190 kDa). Commercial antibodies are widely used to characterize PHLPP1 proteins in cells/tissues. Here we validate five different antibodies to detect PHLPP1α/β by Western blot using PHLPP1 WT/KO mice. All antibodies recognize PHLPP1β in brain. Only a single antibody (Cosmo Bio Co) detects PHLPP1α (~145-150 kDa). The other four antibodies detect a non-specific signal at ~150 kDa as evidenced by its abundance in PHLPP1 KO tissues. Results suggest Cosmo antibody is a better reagent to detect PHLPP1α by Western blot. In contrast, we found it unsuitable for immunofluorescence applications in brain. Our findings caution interpretation of the ~150 kDa band detected by some PHLPP1 antibodies in rodent and human tissues. Results also recapitulate the importance of including molecular weight standards in Western blot data to simplify retrospective analysis.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Scientific Reports, v. 5, article 9377, p. 1-8.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep09377

Funding Information

This work was supported in part by an American Heart Association grant to Travis C. Jackson (14SDG20210000), a U.S. army grant to Patrick M. Kochanek (Award# W81XWH-10-1-0623), and NIH grant R01CA133429 to Tianyan Gao.

srep09377-f1.jpg (140 kB)
Figure 1: PHLPP1 Antibody Comparison in WT and KO Brain.

srep09377-f2.jpg (318 kB)
Figure 2: Utility of Cosmo Antibody for Western and Immunofluorescence Applications.

srep09377-f3.jpg (137 kB)
Figure 3: Detection of PHLPP1 Variants in Human Neuronal cells and Brain Tissue.

srep09377-f4.jpg (218 kB)
Figure 4: PHLPP1 Antibody Comparison in Peripheral Organs from WT and KO Mice.

Included in

Oncology Commons

Share

COinS