We examined whether the Fas (APO-1/CD95)/Fas ligand system mediates apoptosis in rats with ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) lesions. Northern and Western blotting indicated that VMH lesions lead to a significant increase in Fas mRNA and protein expression from day 1 to day 7 and in Fas ligand mRNA and protein expression from day 2 to day 7. Immunohistochemistry indicated that the region of stron...

This issue's Cell Biology Select highlights recent studies that improve our understanding of how switches and tuners regulate cellular processes. Two studies encompassing very different processes—programmed cell death and plant lateral root formation—both reveal regulatory switches that work independently of enzyme action. Three other studies present new insights into how cell motility, signal ...

Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) is a replication-competent, simple retrovirus that induces T-cell lymphomas when inoculated into neonatal mice. The tumor cells are typically derived from immature T cells. During preleukemic times, a marked decrease in thymic size is apparent in M-MuLV-inoculated mice. We previously demonstrated that this thymic regression is correlated with enhanced leve...

Fas, a TNF family receptor, is activated by the membrane protein Fas ligand expressed on various immune cells. Fas signaling triggers apoptosis and induces inflammatory cytokine production. Among the Fas-induced cytokines, the IL-1β family cytokines require proteolysis to gain biological activity. Inflammasomes, which respond to pathogens and danger signals, cleave IL-1β cytokines via caspase-1...

Heterozygous mutations encoding abnormal forms of the death receptor Fas dominantly interfere with Fas-induced lymphocyte apoptosis in human autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome. This effect, rather than depending on ligand-induced receptor oligomerization, was found to stem from ligand- independent interaction of wild-type and mutant Fas receptors through a specific region in the extracellu...

Background: Soluble FasL (sFasL) generating from Membrane-bound (mFasL) cleaved by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). sFasL inhibits the apoptotic and inflammatory activity of mFasL because competes with binds to Fas. To evaluate serum soluble Fas ligand level in patients chronic myeloid leukemia.
 Materials Method: Serum levels were measured ELISA method after venous blood was collected 56...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the concentrations of a soluble form of APO-1/Fas antigen (sFas, CD95) and a soluble Ligand for APO-1/Fas antigen (sCD95L, sFasL) in supernatants from CaSki and HeLa cell line cultures after the incubation with All-trans-retinoic acid. HPV-16 and HPV18 - positive cell lines were cultivated with All-trans-retinoic acid in concentrations of 1 x 10(-6) M/L and ...

Introduction Extrinsic apoptosis is initiated by the heterologous binding and clustering of the single-pass transmembrane proteins, Fas ligand, expressed by natural killer lymphocytes, and its cognate receptor Fas (CD95) expressed at the surface of a target cell. While the Fas mediated death response was widely studied using soluble inducers, the mobility constraints of both receptor and ligand...

Bupleuri Radix (Chai-hu in Chinese and Saiko in Japanese) is one of the most important traditional Chinese crude drugs for treating hepatitis malaria and intermittent fever. B. kaoi is one of the Bupleurum spp. families locally found in Taiwan. The effects of saponin-enriched fraction (SEF) from Bupleurum Kaoi in human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells were investigated in this study. An en...