Lipocalin-2 / NGAL Antibody

About the Target

LCN2 is a target of interest in many antibody-based workflows. Lipocalin-2 (LCN-2), also known as neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), is a recently identified adipocytokine consisting of 198 amino acids. It circulates in the bloodstream and facilitates the transport of small, hydrophobic molecules such as steroids, free fatty acids, prostaglandins, and hormones to target organs. LCN-2 accomplishes this by binding to receptors like megalin/glycoprotein, GP330 SLC22A17, or 24p3R. Depending on the literature source, LCN2 may also be discussed as Lipocalin-2 / NGAL.

Reported cellular context includes cytoplasmic vesicle and secreted, which can matter when signal is compared across treatments or changing cell states. Following LCN2 across matched perturbations can help separate abundance effects from shifts in localization, complex assembly, or pathway state.

Research Context

LCN2 is commonly interpreted in the context of immunology, inflammation, and metabolism research, and readouts are often stronger when a study separates expression changes from compartment-level redistribution. When reported signal spans cytoplasmic vesicle and secreted, a defined reference condition can make comparisons more interpretable across perturbations, passages, or replicate sets.

Consider these angles when interpreting target-level changes:

• apparent redistribution between cytoplasmic vesicle and secreted across matched conditions
• context differences tied to immune-cell state, activation, or lineage composition
• responses associated with cytokine exposure, inflammatory tone, or tissue stress
• responses linked to nutrient status, mitochondrial state, or metabolic rewiring

Variant Considerations

If your project spans exploratory questions, the regular version offers a balanced option for establishing baseline signal behavior for LCN2. This can help when protocols evolve over time and the goal is to compare experiments using a stable reference workflow.

Standardize sampling time, control choice, and downstream analysis thresholds so apparent differences in LCN2 reflect biology rather than handling. When interpreting LCN2, it is often useful to decide early whether the main question is overall abundance, compartmental enrichment, or context-dependent redistribution.

For multi-run studies, a shared reference condition can keep LCN2 trends easier to compare across datasets. That kind of consistency is especially helpful when follow-up work expands to new perturbations, model systems, or longitudinal collections.