in this study organotypic adult spinal cord slices were used to investigate whether caspases could participate in the apoptosis of motor neurons. the thoracic region of spinal cord was sliced using a tissue chopper and cultured in a medium for 6h. morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis were assessed by fluorescent staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl nick end labeling (tunel) met...

A low native membrane permeability and ineffective access to the cellular cytosol, together with aggressive proteolytic degradation, often severely hampers the practical application of any therapeutic protein or antibody. Through engineering the charging profile of mesoporous silica nanoparticles, cellular uptake and subsequent subcellular distribution can be controlled. We show herein that pro...

The mechanisms that control neural stem and progenitor cell survival are unknown. In several pathological conditions, death receptor (DR) ligands and inflammatory cytokines exert a deleterious effect on neurons, whereas primitive neural cells migrate and survive in the site of lesion. Here, we show that even in the presence of inflammatory cytokines, DRs are unable to generate death signals in ...

Inducing apoptosis to susceptible cells is the major mechanism of most cytotoxic anticancer drugs in current use. Cinnamomum kanehirai Hayata (Lauraceae), a unique and native tree of Taiwan, is the major host for the medicinal fungus Antrodia cinnamomea which exhibits anti-cancer activity. Because of the scarcity of A. cinnamomea, C. kanehirai Hayata instead, is used as fork medicine in liver c...

Mitochondria play a central role in controlling apoptosis, and activation of the caspase cascade appears to be crucial event during the apoptotic process. Human B lymphoma Raji cells are resistant to nuclear apoptosis induced by various stimuli. Using this cell line, we have asked whether reduction of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and activation of caspase-3 are sufficient to induce...

TNFα cytotoxic signaling involves lysosomal permeabilization with release of the lysosomal protease cathepsin B (ctsb) into the cytosol. However, the mechanisms mediating lysosomal breakdown remain unclear. As caspase-8 and factor associated with neutral sphingomyelinase activation (FAN) have been implicated as proximal mediators of TNFαassociated apoptosis, their role in lysosomal permeabiliza...

Glutamate receptor overactivation contributes to neuron death after stroke, trauma, and epileptic seizures. Exposure of cultured rat hippocampal neurons to the selective glutamate receptor agonist N-methyl-d-aspartate (300 microm, 5 min) or to the apoptosis-inducing protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine (300 nm) induced a delayed neuron death. In both cases, neuron death was preceded by the mi...

It has been suggested that lysosomes and the lysosomal proteases cathepsin D and B act as proapoptotic mediators of apoptosis, in addition to mitochondrial release of cytochrome c and the activation of the caspase family of proteases. We found that cathepsin D was implicated in the onset of apoptosis in fibroblasts exposed to oxidative stress generated by redox cycling of naphthazarin (NZ)(5,8-...

The apoptotic or necrotic death of renal tubule epithelial cells is the main pathogenesis of renal ischemia-reperfusion-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Pyroptosis is a programmed cell death pathway that depends on the activation of the caspase cascade and IL-1 cytokine family members. However, the role of pyroptosis in AKI induced by ischemia-reperfusion remains unclear. In this study, we fo...

The activation of a self-amplifying cascade of caspases, of which caspase-8 is the apical protease, mediates Fas-, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-, and TNF-alpha-induced apoptosis in colon cell lines. Nitric oxide (NO) protects from apoptosis induced by Fas and TNF-alpha. We examined whether NCX-456, an NO-releasing derivative of mesalamine, protects colon...