Background of the antigen
ESE-1, a member of the Ets family of transcription factors, critically regulates epithelial cell differentiation and mediates vascular inflammation. ESE-1 is strongly expressed in vascular endothelium and smooth muscle cells where it is induced in response to inflammatory cytokines and lipopolysaccharides, interacts with NF-KappaB to induce nitric oxide synthase, and is induced during terminal differentiation of epidermal and primary keratinocytes. In addition, ESE-1 is upregulated upon differentiation of corneal epithelium and interacts with Sp1 and AP-1 proteins to induce squamous differentiation marker expression in bronchial epithelial cells.
