In the manuscript entitled "Activation of the Fas/Fas ligand Pathway in Hypertensive Renal Disease in Dahl/Rapp Rats" Paul Sanders and Pei-Xuan Wang evaluated the renal lesions in hypertensive rats. They used immunohistochemistry to demonstrate an overexpression of Fas and Fas ligand in tubular epithelial and glomerular cells. They also used Western blotting to demonstrate activation of both ca...

BACKGROUND Allograft rejection remains a major obstacle to long-term survival in heart transplantation. Recent studies have demonstrated that apoptotic cell death may occur in acute allograft rejection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether apoptotic cell death is involved in rat cardiac allograft rejection through both the perforin/granzyme pathway and the Fas/Fas ligand (Fas-L) p...

Phenylketonuria (PKU), an autosomal recessive disorder of amino acid metabolism caused by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene, leads to childhood mental retardation by exposing neurons to cytotoxic levels of phenylalanine (Phe). A recent study showed that the mitochondria-mediated (intrinsic) apoptotic pathway is involved in Phe-induced apoptosis in cultured cortical neurons, ...

Radiation-induced apoptosis can be mediated through pathways initiated by either DNA damage or ceramide-induced Fas signaling. Glioblastoma multiforme is a primary brain tumor that is highly resistant to irradiation, and U-87 MG, SF126, and T98G are glioblastoma-derived cell lines that mimic this characteristic. We found that these radioresistant glioma cells are susceptible to Fas-mediated cel...

PURPOSE To investigate whether Fas ligand (FasL) and the Fas receptor system mediates apoptosis in cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells and contributes to oxidant-induced death of hRPE cells. METHODS Expression of FasL and Fas in cultured hRPE cells was examined by Western blot analysis and flow cytometry. The susceptibility of hRPE cells to Fas-mediated apoptosis was determ...

Ab binding to CD20 has been shown to induce apoptosis in B cells. In this study, we demonstrate that rituximab sensitizes lymphoma B cells to Fas-induced apoptosis in a caspase-8-dependent manner. To elucidate the mechanism by which Rituximab affects Fas-mediated cell death, we investigated rituximab-induced signaling and apoptosis pathways. Rituximab-induced apoptosis involved the death recept...

Short-term activated peripheral T lymphocytes are susceptible to apoptotic cell death triggered by CD2 mAbs. The aim of this study was to examine whether the CD2-mediated pathway of apoptosis is linked to the Fas death pathway, as this is the case for CD3/TCR-triggered apoptosis in several models of T cells. Using T lymphocytes from patients harboring Fas gene mutations and displaying a profoun...

One of the most common molecular changes in cancer cells is the overexpression of fatty acid synthase (FAS), a key metabolic enzyme catalyzing the terminal steps in the synthesis of long chain saturated fatty acids. As part of our efforts to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for FAS overexpression, we have addressed the question whether overexpression of FAS may be linked to the frequently o...

Mice bearing the experimental murine renal cancer Renca can be successfully treated with some forms of immunotherapy. In the present study, we have investigated the molecular pathways used by NK and T cells to lyse Renca cells. Renca cells normally express low levels of Fas that can be substantially enhanced by either IFN-gamma or TNF-alpha, and the combination of IFN-gamma + TNF-alpha synergis...