Commercially available PGC-1α antibodies vary greatly in specificity and sensitivity

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α) is an inducible transcriptional coactivator protein involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and metabolism. PGC-1α exhibits a short half-life and low abundance, rendering its detection challenging by immunoblotting. This study compared the specificity and sensitivity of seven commercially available PGC-1α antibodies towards the full-length mouse PGC-1α1 isoform, using overexpression and knockdown in primary mouse hepatocytes. While all antibodies identified overexpressed PGC-1α1, only one detected endogenous PGC-1α1. This study demonstrates wide variability in sensitivity and specificity of PGC-1α antibodies and suggests that controls should be used to differentiate PGC-1α protein from non-specific bands.