The incidence of certain cancers, including prostate cancer, is considerably higher in western countries than in Southeast Asia. Many studies have linked soy consumption to the lower incidence of prostate cancer in these countries. Twenty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomized and divided into a control group and a group treated with soy. The ventral prostates of each animal were sectioned an...

Proliferation, apoptosis and p53 protein expression in adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) cells were investigated. Twenty peripheral blood tissue specimens (PBTS) comprising 7 cases of acute type ATL, 7 cases of chronic type ATL and 6 other leukemias were examined by means of antigen retrieval and the polymer method employing anti-Ki67 antigen (MIB-1), anti-cleaved caspase-3, anti-single stranded DNA ...

Evidences have supported the neuroprotective potential of berberine (BBR) in brain ischemia and injury. This study aimed to investigating whether BBR has neuroprotective effects on SCI and its mechanisms. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats (220-250 g) were randomly divided into Sham, SCI, SCI + BBR (40 mg/kg/day), and SCI + BBR (40 mg/kg/day) + Compound C groups. The BBB score showed BBR improved f...

Kallikrein-related peptidase 14 (KLK14) is a member of the tissue kallikrein family of proteases, which are associated with the pathogenesis of malignant tumors and are over-expressed in ovarian carcinoma. However, the mechanism through which KLK14 is implicated in ovarian cancer remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of KLK14 gene inhibition by small inter...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate caspase-14 expression in the retina under normal and diabetic conditions, and to determine whether caspase-14 contributes to retinal microvascular cell death under high glucose conditions. METHODS Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were used to evaluate caspase-14 expression in retinal cells, including p...

Invertebrates and in Drosophila, lamins and lamin-associated proteins are primary targets for cleavage by caspases. Eliminating mammalian lamins causes apoptosis, whereas expressing mutant lamins that cannot be cleaved by caspase-6 delay apoptosis. Caenorhabditis elegans has a single lamin protein, Ce-lamin, and a caspase, CED-3, that is responsible for most if not all somatic apoptosis. In thi...

Members of the caspase family are essential for many apoptotic programs. We studied mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) deficient in caspases 3 and 7 and in caspase 9 to determine the role of these proteases in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced apoptosis. Both caspase 3(-/-)/caspase 7(-/-) and caspase 9(-/-) MEFs were resistant to cytotoxicity induced via ER stress and failed to exhibit ...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of electroacupuncture-like stimulation at the Baihui (GV20) and Dazhui (GV14) acupoints (EA at acupoints) during the subacute phase of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury and to establish the neuroprotective mechanisms involved in the modulation of the S100B-mediated signaling pathway. METHODS The experimental rats were s...

Huntington's disease (HD) results from polyglutamine expansion in huntingtin (htt), a protein with several consensus caspase cleavage sites. Despite the identification of htt fragments in the brain, it has not been shown conclusively that htt is cleaved by caspases in vivo. Furthermore, no study has addressed when htt cleavage occurs with respect to the onset of neurodegeneration. Using antibod...

Recent studies have implicated the dying cell as a potential reservoir of modified autoantigens that might initiate and drive systemic autoimmunity in susceptible hosts. A number of subunits of the exosome, a complex of 3'-->5' exoribonucleases that functions in a variety of cellular processes, are recognized by the so-called anti-PM/Scl autoantibodies, found predominantly in patients suffering...