Synaptophysin

Antigen Background

Synaptophysin is an integral membrane glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 38 kD. It is reported to occur in presynaptic vesicles of neurons in brain, spinal cord, retina, in similar vesicles of the adrenal medulla as well as in neuromuscular junctions.
Synaptophysin may be involved in synaptic vesicle formation and exocytosis. Synaptophysin is reported to be expressed in a wide spectrum of neuroendocrine tumors including neuroblastomas, ganglioneuroblastomas, phaeochromocytomas, chromaffin and non-chromaffin paragangliomas.
Synaptophysin is also reported to be expressed in neuroendocrine tumors of epithelial type including pituitary adenomas, islet cell tumors, medullary carcinomas of thyroid, parathyroid adenomas, carcinoids of the bronchopulmonary and gastrointestinal tracts, neuroendocrine carcinomas of the bronchopulmonary and gastrointestinal tract and neuronendocrine carcinomas of the skin.

Disclaimer

Synaptophysin is recommended for the detection of specific antigens of interest in normal and neoplastic tissues, as an adjunct to conventional histopathology using non-immunologic histochemical stains.