Desmin antibody: muscle specific? Options

[EmilyG]

Hello everyone

I've been trying to find a muscle specific antibody and desmin was recommended to me.
I want to use it for looking at primary muscle culture purity and make sure there are not too many fibroblasts present. As a negative control I have been using primary human fibroblasts and have found that desmin labels a few of these cells as well.

Has anyone else had experience of the muscle specific desmin antibody labelling fibroblasts? I've now tried two antibodies from different companies with the same result.

BW
Emily

[badger]

Hello everyone

I've been trying to find a muscle specific antibody and desmin was recommended to me.
I want to use it for looking at primary muscle culture purity and make sure there are not too many fibroblasts present. As a negative control I have been using primary human fibroblasts and have found that desmin labels a few of these cells as well.

Has anyone else had experience of the muscle specific desmin antibody labelling fibroblasts? I've now tried two antibodies from different companies with the same result.

BW
Emily

As far as I know, desmin was originally considered as a mesenchymal marker. However, it has been identified also in other cell types, such as dermal fibroblasts from the skin and cardiomyocytes.
See
Lazarides E, Balzer DR Jr (1978)
Specificity of desmin to avian and mammalian muscle cells.
Cell. 1978 Jun;14(2):429-38.

Cheerio