CD56

Background

CD56 is a membrane glycoprotein, which plays an important role in embryogenesis and contact-mediated interactions between neural cells. CD56 is widely present in neurons, glial cells, skeletal muscle cells, most types of neuroendocrine cells and various epithelial cells. In the hematopoietic system, CD56 is the prototypic marker of NK cells, also present on subset of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells. It is mainly used for the diagnosis and research of neuroectodermal tumors, small cell lung cancer and NK cell lymphoma.