Description: The polyclonal antibody reacts with mouse, rat, and human IkB-alpha; the antibody was raised against a peptide mapping to the carboxy terminal domain of human IkB-alpha. The NFkB family of transcription factors is sequestered in the cytoplasm by IkB inhibitory proteins (1&2).IkB-alpha and IkB-beta are the two members of this family most often cited for their regulatory function of NFkB directed gene expression. The interaction of NFkB dimers with IkB proteins keeps the complex in the cytoplasm, but upon cellular stimulation the IkB proteins are phosphorylated and subsequently degraded (1&3). The free NFkB can now enter the nucleus and induce gene expression of proteins critical for cellular proliferation, differentation, or apoptosis (1-4).