20(S)-protopanaxadiol (PPD) is an active natural product which transformed from protopanaxadiol-type ginsenosides. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of PPD on myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in a rat model. (20mg/kg) or positive-control drug Diltiazem (10mg/kg) administered daily for 7 days before left anterior descending I/R operation. After 2-hour reperfusio...

Objective(s): Although tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) can selectively induce apoptosis in tumor cells, more than half of tumors including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) exhibit TRAIL-resistance. The purpose of this study was to determine whether subtoxic-dose cisplatin and TRAIL could synergistically enhance apoptosis on NSCLC cells and investigate its under...

Radiotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Cyclin G1 is a novel member cyclin family, and it abnormally expressed HCC. In this study we investigated radiotherapy HCC cells. The expression was silenced by transfection G1-siRNA into HepG2 cells Huh7 cells, mRNA protein measured qRT-PCR Western blot analysis. proliferation analyzed using MTT assay, rad...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Apoptotic-like pathways may contribute to brain cell death after intracerebral hemorrhage. In this study, we used a simplified in vitro model of hemoglobin neurotoxicity to map the caspase cascades involved and to document the role of oxidative stress. METHODS Primary neuronal cultures were obtained from rat cerebral cortex and exposed to hemoglobin to induce cell death...

Current colorectal cancer (CRC) treatments exhibit unwanted cytotoxicity against healthy proliferating cells. Hence, these therapeutics demand higher specificity upon drug delivery, a task that may be facilitated by the discovery of anticancer agents bearing critical mechanisms action. Baicalein is flavonoid with promising activity, among other pharmacological benefits, and has therefore been h...

The ability to multiplex assays in studies of complex cellular mechanisms eliminates the need for repetitive experiments, provides internal controls, and decreases waste in costs and reagents. Here we describe optimization of a multiplex assay to assess apoptosis following a palmitic acid (PA) challenge in an in vitro hypothalamic model, using both fluorescent and luminescent based assays to me...

Norcantharidin (NCTD) is the demethylated form of cantharidin, which is the active substance of mylabris. To examine the pathway of NCTD-induced A375-S2 cell death, 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-dipheyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, photomicroscopical observation, DNA agarose gel electrophoresis, caspase activity assay and Western blot analysis were carried out. A375-S2 cells treated wit...

PURPOSE Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha is an important cytokine associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). TNF-alpha activates the extrinsic apoptotic pathway. In many cells, nuclear transcription factor (NF)-kappaB upregulates antiapoptotic proteins and prevents TNF-alpha-mediated apoptosis. However, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cel...

Alternatively spliced isoforms of certain apoptosis regulators, such as Bcl-x, Ced-4, and Ich-1, have been shown to play opposing roles in regulating apoptosis. Here, we describe the identification of an endogenous alternatively spliced isoform of caspase-9, named caspase-9b, which lacks the central large subunit caspase domain. Caspase-9b is detectable in many cell lines by PCR and at the mRNA...