Search results for "CASP"
showing 10 items of 470 documents
Chemically modified tetracyclines induce cytotoxic effects against J774 tumour cell line by activating the apoptotic pathway
2003
Here, we have studied the effects of chemically modified tetracyclines (CMTs) on apoptosis both at the level of the cytoplasmic proteolytic caspase cascade, and on Bcl-2 and c-myc mRNA expression in the J774 macrophage cell line. The results indicate that CMTs induce morphological changes consistent with apoptotic events, as clearly demonstrated both by the acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining, and by TUNEL and fragmentation ELISA assays. Furthermore, the analysis of the cell cycle by flow cytometry shows an evident apoptotic sub-G0G1 peak, without important modifications in the cell cycle distribution. CMTs induce programmed cell death (PCD) in a dose-dependent manner and CMT-8 is…
Anti-Proliferative Activity of A Hydrophilic Extract of Manna from Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl through Mitochondrial Pathway-Mediated Apoptosis and Ce…
2020
Manna is produced from the spontaneous solidification of the sap of some Fraxinus species, and, owing its content in mannitol, is used in medicine as a mild laxative. Manna is also a rich source of characteristic bio-phenols with reducing, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study assesses the activity of a hydrophilic extract of manna (HME) on cellular and molecular events in human colon-rectal cancer cells. HME showed a time- and concentration-dependent anti-proliferative activity, measured by MTT assay, in all the cell lines examined, namely Caco-2, HCT-116 and HT-29. The amounts of HME that caused 50% of cell death after a 24 h treatment were 8.51 ±
Poriferan survivin exhibits a conserved regulatory role in the interconnected pathways of cell cycle and apoptosis
2010
Survivin orchestrates intracellular pathways during cell division and apoptosis. Its central function as mitotic regulator and inhibitor of cell death has major implications for tumor cell proliferation. Analyses in early-branching Metazoa so far propose an exclusive role of survivin as a chromosomal passenger protein, whereas only later during evolution a complementary antiapoptotic function might have arisen, concurrent with increased organismal complexity. To lift the veil on the ancestral function(s) of this key regulator, a survivin-like protein (SURVL) of one of the earliest-branching metazoan taxa was identified and functionally characterized. SURVL of the sponge Suberites domuncula …
Heat shock proteins: essential proteins for apoptosis regulation
2008
Abstract Many different external and intrinsic apoptotic stimuli induce the accumulation in the cells of a set of proteins known as stress or heat shock proteins (HSPs). HSPs are conserved proteins present in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. These proteins play an essential role as molecular chaperones by assisting the correct folding of nascent and stress-accumulated misfolded proteins, and by preventing their aggregation. HSPs have a protective function, that is they allow the cells to survive to otherwise lethal conditions. Various mechanisms have been proposed to account for the cytoprotective functions of HSPs. Several of these proteins have demonstrated to directly interact with compo…
GD3 ganglioside directly targets mitochondria in a bcl-2-controlled fashion.
2000
Lipid and glycolipid diffusible mediators are involved in the intracellular progression and amplification of apoptotic signals. GD3 ganglioside is rapidly synthesized from accumulated ceramide after the clustering of death-inducing receptors and triggers apoptosis. Here we show that GD3 induces dissipation of DeltaPsim and swelling of isolated mitochondria, which results in the mitochondrial release of cytochrome c, apoptosis inducing factor, and caspase 9. Soluble factors released from GD3-treated mitochondria are sufficient to trigger DNA fragmentation in isolated nuclei. All these effects can be blocked by cyclosporin A, suggesting that GD3 is acting at the level of the permeability tran…
DNA damage-induced cell death by apoptosis
2006
Following the induction of DNA damage, a prominent route of cell inactivation is apoptosis. During the last ten years, specific DNA lesions that trigger apoptosis have been identified. These include O6-methylguanine, base N-alkylations, bulky DNA adducts, DNA cross-links and DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Repair of these lesions are important in preventing apoptosis. An exception is O6-methylguanine-thymine lesions, which require mismatch repair for triggering apoptosis. Apoptosis induced by many chemical genotoxins is the consequence of blockage of DNA replication, which leads to collapse of replication forks and DSB formation. These DSBs are thought to be crucial downstream apoptosis-tr…
The Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAPs) in Adaptive Response to Cellular Stress.
2012
Cells are constantly exposed to endogenous and exogenous cellular injuries. They cope with stressful stimuli by adapting their metabolism and activating various “guardian molecules.” These pro-survival factors protect essential cell constituents, prevent cell death, and possibly repair cellular damages. The Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAPs) proteins display both anti-apoptotic and pro-survival properties and their expression can be induced by a variety of cellular stress such as hypoxia, endoplasmic reticular stress and DNA damage. Thus, IAPs can confer tolerance to cellular stress. This review presents the anti-apoptotic and survival functions of IAPs and their role in the adaptive response to…
Differentiation-associated apoptosis of neural stem cells is effected by Bcl-2 overexpression: impact on cell lineage determination
2001
Apoptosis is an integral part of neural development. To elucidate the importance of programmed cell death on cell lineage determination we utilized murine PCC7-Mzl cells, a model system for neural differentiation. Treatment of pluripotent PCC7-Mzl stem cells with 0.1 microM all-trans retinoic acid (RA) causes a cease of proliferation and an initiation of differentiation into neurons, glial cells and fibroblasts. Simultaneously, a fraction of the cell culture (ca. 25%) dies within 24 h by apoptosis. We transfected PCC7-Mzl cells with the human bcl-2 cDNA and generated PCC7-Mz-Bcl-2 cell lines expressing two- to tenfold higher levels of Bcl-2 than parental cells. Overexpression of Bcl-2 resul…
A petrol ether extract of the roots of Onosma paniculatum induces cell death in a caspase dependent manner
2010
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has become very popular in Western countries during the last years. Zicao, a remedy of TCM, has been traditionally used to treat cancer, and, its main constituents, naphthoquinones, have been reported to possess antitumor activity (Chen et al., 2002; Papageorgiou et al., 1999). Here, we prepared extracts of different polarities of Onosma paniculatum Bur.Franch., a plant which is amongst others used as Zicao, but, much less investigated. The extracts were analyzed concerning their growth inhibitory and apoptosis-inducing activity in various tumor cells.Cell viability was measured by XTT viability and a growth inhibition assay. Effects on the cell cycle and …
Sea urchin embryos exposed to cadmium as an experimental model for studying the relationship between autophagy and apoptosis
2014
The sea urchin embryo is a suitable model that offers an excellent opportunity to investigate different defence strategies activated in stress conditions. We previously showed that cadmium accumulates in a dose- and time-dependent manner into embryonic cells, activating different stress and defence mechanisms, including the synthesis of HSPs and the onset of apoptosis and/or autophagy. In this paper we investigated the functional relationship between autophagy and apoptosis, evaluating apoptosis signals in cadmium-exposed Paracentrotus lividus embryos with inhibited autophagy. We found that the inhibition of autophagy produced the concurrent reduction of apoptosis, suggesting that the two p…