About CD40
This gene is a member of the TNF-receptor superfamily. The encoded protein is a receptor on antigen-presenting cells of the immune system and is essential for mediating a broad variety of immune and inflammatory responses including T cell-dependent immunoglobulin class switching, memory B cell development, and germinal center formation. AT-hook transcription factor AKNA is reported to coordinately regulate the expression of this receptor and its ligand, which may be important for homotypic cell interactions. Adaptor protein TNFR2 interacts with this receptor and serves as a mediator of the signal transduction. The interaction of this receptor and its ligand is found to be necessary for amyloid-beta-induced microglial activation, and thus is thought to be an early event in Alzheimer disease pathogenesis. Mutations affecting this gene are the cause of autosomal recessive hyper-IgM immunodeficiency type 3 (HIGM3). Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants of this gene encoding distinct isoforms have been reported. [provided by RefSeq, Nov 2014]

About Alexa Fluor 488
Alexa Fluor™ 488 (AF488, Alexa 488) has an excitation peak at 488 nm and an emission peak at 496 nm, and is considered a high-performance alternative to FITC. Alexa 488 is one of the most popular Alexa Fluor™ dyes and is widely used in Fluorescence Microscopy, flow cytometry, and for staining low expression markers. It is bright, highly photostable, resistant to pH changes, and less susceptible to photobleaching. Alexa 488 and is similar in size, brightness and application to DyLight™ 488, iFluor® 488 and CF®488A.