Vesicular Acetylcholine Transporter (VAChT) — Research Products

VAChT is the vesicular acetylcholine transporter, encoded by SLC18A3. It is described as loading acetylcholine into synaptic vesicles at cholinergic terminals, driven by the proton gradient established across the vesicle membrane by the vacuolar ATPase.

Its expression is largely restricted to cholinergic neurons and a few other secretory cell types. That selectivity makes VAChT immunostaining a practical way to identify cholinergic terminals in tissue sections and in cultured neuronal preparations.

Because it is a multi-pass membrane protein, this family provides synthetic peptide antigens from defined regions plus matched antibodies in unconjugated, biotin- and fluorophore-labeled forms. The peptides also serve as blocking controls during antibody validation.