The pro-apoptotic BCL2 gene family member, BAX, plays a pivotal role in the intrinsic apoptotic pathway. Under cellular stress, BAX recruitment to the mitochondria occurs when activated BAX forms dimers, then oligomers, to initiate mitochondria outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP), a process critical for apoptotic progression. The activation and recruitment of BAX to form oligomers has been s...

objective(s): this study focused on determining cytotoxic effects of copper oxide nanoparticles (cuo nps) on chronic myeloid leukemia (cml) k562 cell line in a cell-specific manner and its possible mechanism of cell death. we investigated the cytotoxicity of cuo nps against k562 cell line (cancerous cell) and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (normal cell). materials and methods: the toxicity w...

INTRODUCTION Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is a critical medical problem in about 0.5-2% of women. The molecular genetic background for spontaneous abortion is being increasingly understood, and some polymorphisms associated with it have been reported. This study investigates alterations of the Bax gene as a pro-apoptotic gene in women with idiopathic RPL. MATERIAL AND METHODS The frequency ...

Many viruses encode proteins that inhibit the induction of programmed cell death at the mitochondrial checkpoint. Murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) encodes the m38.5 protein, which localizes to mitochondria and protects human HeLa cells and fibroblasts from apoptosis triggered by proteasome inhibitors but not from Fas-induced apoptosis. However, the ability of this protein to suppress the apoptosis...

background 3-4methylenedioxymethamphetamine (mdma) is a synthetic and psychoactive drug, which is known popularly as ecstasy and has toxic effects on human organs. objectives considering the potential toxic interaction, this study was performed to quantify the expression of bax and bcl2 genes in mdma-induced hepatotoxicity on rat liver. subsequently, we evaluated pentoxifylline as a possible pr...

Insulin-like growth factors are known to inhibit apoptosis and promote tumour angiogenesis. Previously we have shown that insulin-like growth factor binding protein-4 (IGFBP-4) gene therapy increased apoptosis and decreased mitosis in colon cancer. In this experiment we used HT-29 colon cancer cells to induce subcutaneous cancers in nude mice and administered either the mammalian expression vec...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the expressions of the bcl-2, bax, fas and c-myc apoptosis-related genes in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate carcinoma (CaP) to determine whether significant differences exist within each disease and between the two groups of patients. The correlation between gene expression and tumour diameter, stage, Gleason score and serum PSA wa...

Many genes are involved in cell cycle control, DNA repair and induction of cell death. Alterations in these genes have been responsible for the development of cancer as well as for resistance to cancer therapy. Recently, an emerging family of bcl2-like genes has been identified that plays a role in the regulation of cell death. Its members are highly conserved in several domains which have been...

We recently reported that cytosine arabinoside (AraC)-induced apoptosis of cerebellar neurons involves the overexpression of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). The present study was undertaken to investigate whether p53 and/or Bax overexpression participates in the AraC-induced apoptosis of cerebellar granule cells and, if so, the relationship between p53 induction and GAPDH over...

The intracellular balance between pro- and antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 gene family is thought to regulate cell death. Targeted disruption of bcl-x, a death repressing member, causes massive cell death of immature neurons in the developing mouse CNS, whereas targeted disruption of bax, a proapoptotic member, blocks the death of specific populations of sympathetic and motor neurons. In the...