Why would you monitor spectrin levels? - (Mar/21/2011 )

Why would someone want to monitor actin and spectrin levels? through Western Blotting? What would it show if they used actin and spectrin antibodies?

What do you know about actin and/or spectrin in the cell? What are their expressions like (levels etc.)?

the levels are generally the same. But, I was wondering what actin and spectrin have to do with synaptic plasticity in layman's terms

Bugger all...

They are standard proteins used to ensure that you have loaded similar amounts of protein per sample.

so, spectrin degradation and actin polymerization doesn't apply?

Possibly, I don't know about synaptic plasticity. However, what I said above is the most common reason people use actin and other common structural components in western blots.

ok thank you so much!