About IL-5
This gene encodes a cytokine that acts as a growth and differentiation factor for both B cells and eosinophils. The encoded cytokine plays a major role in the regulation of eosinophil formation, maturation, recruitment and survival. The increased production of this cytokine may be related to pathogenesis of eosinophil-dependent inflammatory diseases. This cytokine functions by binding to its receptor, which is a heterodimer, whose beta subunit is shared with the receptors for interleukine 3 (IL3) and colony stimulating factor 2 (CSF2/GM-CSF). This gene is located on chromosome 5 within a cytokine gene cluster which includes interleukin 4 (IL4), interleukin 13 (IL13), and CSF2 . This gene, IL4, and IL13 may be regulated coordinately by long-range regulatory elements spread over 120 kilobases on chromosome 5q31. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2013]

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.