the apoptotic protease-activating factor 1 (apaf-1) receives the death signal in the intrinsic ormitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. upon the releasing of cytochrome c from theintermembrane space of mitochondria and binding to apaf-1 molecules, a heptamericapoptosome complex is formed and triggers the downstream cascade of caspases. here, for thefirst time we present spontaneous mutations and r...

Excessive apoptosis of intervertebral disk cells and degeneration (IDD) is the prime cause low back pain. B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) adenovirus E1B 19 kDa interacting protein 3 (BNIP3), a member Bcl-2 family, are involved in cell autophagy apoptosis. The roles mechanisms BNIP3 unclear. In this study, primary rat were prepared to study effect overexpression on their counting kit (CCK)-8 assay sho...

delayed neuronal death after seizure attack may be mediated by the induction of apoptosis-pathway. caspase-3, a mammalian cysteine protease, promotes apoptosis after some neurological disorders. neuron regeneration peptides (nrps) are small synthetic peptides that stimulate neural proliferation, migration, and differentiation with no apparent toxicity and high target specificity in cns. in the ...

Numerous host and viral factors are capable of causing death of HIV infected cells, uninfected bystander cells, or both. We assessed the relevance of HIV protease in infected cell killing by mutating its obligate substrate for death, procaspase 8. VSV pseudotyped HIV infection of cells expressing WT caspase 8 resulted in apoptotic cell death and generation of the HIV protease specific cleavage ...

Neuronal apoptosis occurs during nervous system development and after pathological insults to the adult nervous system. Inhibition of CED3/ICE-related proteases has been shown to inhibit neuronal apoptosis in vitro and in vivo, indicating a role for these cysteine proteases in neuronal apoptosis. We have studied the activation of the CED3/ICE-related protease CPP32 in two in vitro models of mou...

The serine protease HtrA2/Omi is released from the mitochondria into the cytosol following apoptosis stimuli, leading to the programmed cell death in caspase-dependent and -independent manners. The function of HtrA2/Omi closely relates to its protease activity, which is required for cleavage of its substrate such as the members of the X-linked inhibitor of apoptotic protein family. However, the...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Certain virulence factors participating in periodontitis may relate to cardiovascular diseases. This study was to evaluate the pro-apoptotic effect of protein extracts from Porphyromonas gingivalis on bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs). MATERIAL AND METHODS The BAECs were exposed to trypsin-like protease-active protein extracts from P. gingivalis, and apoptosis w...