Penta-1,2,3,4,6-O-galloyl-beta-d-glucose (PGG) suppresses the in vivo growth of human DU145 and PC-3 prostate cancer xenografts in nude mice, suggesting potential utility as a prostate cancer chemotherapeutic or chemopreventive agent. Our earlier work implicates caspase-mediated apoptosis in DU145 and LNCaP prostate cancer cells as one mechanism for the anticancer activity. We show here that, i...

The number of neurons in the mammalian brain is determined by a balance between cell proliferation and programmed cell death. Recent studies indicated that Bcl-X(L) prevents, whereas Caspase-3 mediates, cell death in the developing nervous system, but whether Bcl-X(L) directly blocks the apoptotic function of Caspase-3 in vivo is not known. To examine this question, we generated bcl-x/caspase-3...

Proteases of the caspase family play a central role in the execution of programmed cell death in all metazoans examined. The Caenorhabditis elegans caspase CED-3 is essential for programmed cell death in this organism. Three additional C. elegans caspase-related genes, csp-1 (caspase homolog-1), which encodes the csp-1A, csp-1B, and csp-1C RNA species; csp-2, which encodes the csp-2A and csp-2B...

An analysis of programmed cell death of several populations of developing postmitotic neurons after genetic deletion of two key members of the caspase family of pro-apoptotic proteases, caspase-3 and caspase-9, indicates that normal neuronal loss occurs. Although the amount of cell death is not altered, the death process may be delayed, and the cells appear to use a nonapoptotic pathway of dege...

Earlier reports have shown that herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) mutants induce programmed cell death and that wild-type virus blocks the execution of the cell death program triggered by expression of viral genes, by the Fas and tumor necrosis factor pathways, or by nonspecific stress agents. In particular, an earlier report from this laboratory showed that the mutant virus d120 lacking the genes...

Programmed cell death is essential part of development and cell homeostasis of any multicellular organism. We have analyzed programmed cell death in developing barley caryopsis at histological, biochemical and molecular level. Caspase-1, -3, -4, -6 and -8-like activities increased with aging of pericarp coinciding with abundance of TUNEL positive nuclei and expression of HvVPE4 and HvPhS2 genes...

Earlier reports have shown that herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) mutants induce programmed cell death and that wild-type HSV blocks the execution of the cell death program triggered by viral gene products, by the effectors of the immune system such as the Fas and tumor necrosis factor pathways, or by nonspecific stress agents such as either osmotic shock induced by sorbitol or thermal shock. A re...

Apoptosis is a programmed cell death that has been attributed to the action of stress hormones, such as cortisol. We investigated the in vitro effect of cortisol in goldfish (Carassius auratus) mature (GSI: 2.75-4.65) or immature (GSI: 1.94-2.4) testes. Testes were taken out and transferred into culture medium (M 199), cut into 20 mm thick slices and supplemented with fetal bovine serum (FBS), ...

Caspases accomplish initiation and execution of apoptosis, a programmed cell death process specific to metazoans. The existence of prokaryotic caspase homologs, termed metacaspases, has been known for slightly more than a decade. Despite their potential connection to the evolution of programmed cell death in eukaryotes, the phylogenetic distribution and functions of these prokaryotic metacaspas...

Caspase-independent programmed cell death can exhibit either an apoptosis-like or a necrosis-like morphology. The ABL kinase inhibitor, imatinib mesylate, has been reported to induce apoptosis of BCR-ABL-positive cells in a caspase-dependent fashion. We investigated whether caspases alone were the mediators of imatinib mesylate-induced cell death. In contrast to previous reports, we found that ...