Blimp-1/PRDI-BF1 (C14A4) Rabbit mAb

Blimp-1 (B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein) is a nuclear zinc-finger containing transcriptional repressor that is considered a master regulator of terminal B cell development (1). The human homolog, PRDI-BF1, was identified by its ability to bind to the PRDI element on the IFN-β promoter and can inhibit virus-mediated IFN-β production (2). Expression of Blimp-1 is sufficient to drive terminal differentiation of BCL1 lymphoma cells into antibody secreting plasma cells, increasing the expression of the cell surface marker Syndecan-1 (1). In the B cell lineage, Blimp-1 is specifically expressed in antibody-secreting cells including activated B and plasma cells. In addition, Blimp-1 has been found during macrophage differentiation (3) and in a subset of T cells (4,5), suggesting it may play a wider role in homeostasis and differentiation (6). Mechanistically, Blimp-1 is thought to act by recruiting chromatin-modifying enzymes including histone deacetylases (7) and methyltransferases (8,9). Target genes of Blimp-1 transcriptional repression with potential roles in differentiation include c-Myc (10), CIITA (11), Pax5 (12), Spi-B, and Id3 (13). 1.Turner, C.A. et al. (1994) Cell 77, 297-306. 2.Keller, A.D. and Maniatis, T. (1991) Genes Dev 5, 868-79. 3.Chang, D.H. et al. (2000) Nat Immunol 1, 169-76. 4.Kallies, A. et al. (2006) Nat Immunol 7, 466-74. 5.Martins, G.A. et al. (2006) Nat Immunol 7, 457-65. 6.Kallies, A. and Nutt, S.L. (2007) Curr Opin Immunol 19, 156-62. 7.Yu, J. et al. (2000) Mol Cell Biol 20, 2592-603. 8.Gyory, I. et al. (2004) Nat Immunol 5, 299-308. 9.Ancelin, K. et al. (2006) Nat Cell Biol 8, 623-30. 10.Lin, Y. et al. (1997) Science 276, 596-9. 11.Chen, H. et al. (2007) Mol Immunol 44, 1461-70. 12.Lin, K.I. et al. (2002) Mol Cell Biol 22, 4771-80. 13.Shaffer, A.L. et al. (2006) Immunol Rev 210, 67-85.