TNF Signaling

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily includes 29 receptors in humans that interact with a variety of ligands. These receptors fall into 3 major groups, depending on their cytoplasmic domains: death domain containing, TRAF (TNF receptor associated factor)-interacting motif containing, and “decoy” receptors that have neither of these motifs. The death domain containing receptors initiate cell death programs such as apoptosis and necrosis. The TNF receptors with TRAF-interacting motifs bind with one of the 6 TRAF adaptor proteins to propagate signal transduction. These receptors are involved in inflammatory and immune responses. The final TNF receptor family, the decoy receptors, has no known function but is capable of binding TNF ligands. TNF receptor signaling dysfunction contributes to diseases such as chronic inflammation, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Analyzing the expression, regulation, and sequence of TNF signaling genes can help determine their relative importance to the biology of the cellular or disease processes under study.

QIAGEN provides a broad range of assay technologies for TNF signaling research that enables analysis of gene expression and regulation, epigenetic modification, genotyping, and signal transduction pathway activation. Solutions optimized for TNF signaling studies include PCR array, miRNA, siRNA, mutation analysis, pathway reporter, chromatin IP, DNA methylation, and protein expression products.