effects of serum and protein synthesis inhibitors on polymorphonuclear neutrophil apoptosis

in this study the programmed cell death (apoptosis) of human neutrophilic granulocytes was investigated in the presence and absence of fetal calf serum (fcs), cycloheximide and actinomycin-d. the results show that when fcs is omitted from cultures, apart from a decrease in viability, the percentage of apoptotic cells and dna fragmentation increases. apoptosis is accelerated in serum withdrawal cultures at 6 hours of incubation time. the use of fluorescent dyes and diphenylamine reaction proceaures confirm the above results. treatment of cells with protein synthesis inhibitors, actinomycin-d and cycloheximide promotes apoptosis and produces a typical ladder of internucleosomal cleavage in the cellular chromatin the extent of fragmentation however, differs.