Apoptosis proceeds through cleavage of various intracellular proteins. The proteases which mediate this process
are referred to as caspases. One important caspase substrate is the intermediate filament protein keratin 18 (K18, Cytokeratin 18 or CK18)
(Caulin et al., 1997), expressed in cells of simple epithelium.

The antibody M30 CytoDEATH™ recognizes a neo-epitope formed after caspase cleavage of keratin 18 at Asp396 (K18Asp396-NE, M30 neo-epitope)
(Leers et al., 1999). M30 CytoDEATH™ does not bind native, unmodified K18 of normal cells. Therefore, M30 CytoDEATH™ is a very reliable
and convenient tool for demonstration of apoptosis in single cells and tissue sections of epithelial origin.