Prothymosin alpha (ProTα) is a highly acidic polypeptide, ubiquitously expressed in almost
all mammalian cells and tissues and consisting of 109 amino acids in humans. ProTα is known
to act both, intracellularly, as an anti-apoptotic and proliferation mediator, and extracellularly, as a
biologic response modifier mediating immune responses similar to molecules termed as “alarmins”.
Antibodies and immunochemical techniques for ProTα have played a leading role in the investigation
of the biological role of ProTα, several aspects of which still remain unknown and contributed
to unraveling the diagnostic and therapeutic potential of the polypeptide. This review deals with the
so far reported antibodies along with the related immunodetection methodology for ProTα (immunoassays
as well as immunohistochemical, immunocytological, immunoblotting, and immunoprecipitation
techniques) and its application to biological samples of interest (tissue extracts and sections,
cells, cell lysates and cell culture supernatants, body fluids), in health and disease states. In
this context, literature information is critically discussed, and some concluding remarks are presented.
