A deadly receptor reveals a benevolent side in a study on page 575. Landau and colleagues show that the cell death–inducing receptor Fas is required for protection against neurodegeneration in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease (PD). The Fas receptor (Fas), best known for its apoptotic role in the immune system, is widely expressed in nonimmune tissues, including the central nervous system. I...

Recent evidence has emphasized the importance of apoptosis in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis and the pathogenesis of malignant and immune diseases. Autoimmune thyroid diseases such as Hashimoto's thyroiditis and Graves' disease, as well as other autoimmune endocrine diseases, have been associated with dysregulation of apoptotic signaling pathways. In particular, dysfunction of the Fas ap...

In the current study, we investigated whether the growth of FasL-bearing tumor cells would induce apoptosis and toxicity in organs that express high level of Fas. Sera from C57BL/6 +/+ (wild-type) mice injected with syngeneic FasL(+) tumors, LSA, or EL-4, showed significantly higher levels of soluble FasL than that from the nontumor-bearing mice. Furthermore, the soluble FasL was functional ina...

The Fas/Fas ligand (Fas-L) system has been established as one of the regulatory pathways of apoptotic cell death. Fas is a type I membrane protein which belongs to the tumour necrosis factor/nerve growth factor receptor family and mediates apoptosis. A soluble form of Fas (sFas) found in sera of human subjects is thought to block apoptosis by inhibition of binding between Fas and the antibody t...

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...

The Fas/Fas ligand (Fas-L) system has been established as one of the regulatory pathways of apoptotic cell death. Fas is a type I membrane protein which belongs to the tumour necrosis factor/nerve growth factor receptor family and mediates apoptosis. A soluble form of Fas (sFas) found in sera of human subjects is thought to block apoptosis by inhibition of binding between Fas and the antibody t...

Silicosis patients not only suffer from respiratory disorders but also from autoimmune diseases. To clarify the mechanisms involved in the occurrence of the dysregulation of autoimmunity found in silicosis patients, we have been focusing on investigation of the Fas and Fas-related molecules in the Fas-mediated apoptotic pathway, since Fas is one of the most important molecules regulating autoim...

AIMS To investigate the presence of soluble Fas ligand (sFasL) and soluble Fas (sFas) in ocular fluid of patients with uveitis. METHODS Samples of aqueous humour (AH, n=17), vitreous fluid (n=9), and serum (n=60) were collected from patients with uveitis which included Behçet's disease, Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease, sarcoidosis, human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) uveitis, sympathetic ...

We have developed and characterized a highly sensitive ELISA for soluble Fas (sFas) in the serum. The linearity of calibrator range was 0.06-2.00 micrograms/L and the detection limit was 0.01 microgram/L. The average within- and between-run CVs were 3.9% and 3.8%, respectively. The recovery of added sFas to serum was 93-118%. The effects of possible interferences (tryglyceride, hemoglobin, bili...

We report a soluble isoform of mouse Fas, which is generated by alternative splicing of Fas mRNA to a newly identified exon located between exons 2 and 3 of the previously published Fas sequence. This splicing event creates a novel Fas transcript, Fas beta, with the potential to encode a truncated form of the extracellular domain, termed Fas B. In vitro, P815 mastocytoma cells transfected with ...