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...

Fas/APO-1 (CD95) is an apoptosis-signaling receptor molecule on the surface of cells. To investigate the possible role of Fas during malignant transformation of glial cells, we analyzed the expression of Fas mRNA by reverse transcription-PCR in human astrocytic brain tumors. Expression was found in 1 of 4 (25%) juvenile pilocytic astrocytomas (WHO grade I), 1 of 9 (11%) low-grade astrocytomas (...

Fas (APO-1, CD95) is a type I integral membrane protein initially identified by mAbs that induce apoptotic cell death upon binding to certain tumor cells and its belongs to the TNFR family. Fas is expressed on activated lymphocytes and in various tissues including the liver, lung, intestine, and skin. Molecular cloning of Fas ligand (FasL) revealed that it is a type II integral membrane protein...

The Fas/Fas Ligand system is a major apoptosis signaling pathway that is up-regulated in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Serum soluble Fas (sFas) levels increase in proportion to the CHF severity and may have prognostic value, therefore, sFas is a promising biomarker of heart failure. In this study, we attempted to identify the determinants of sFas levels in patients with CHF. Serum ...

Fas (APO-1/CD95) is a cell surface receptor that mediates apoptosis when it reacts with Fas ligand (FasL) or Fas antibody. In this study, we analyzed Fas and FasL expression in normal esophageal mucosa and esophageal squamous cell carcinomas. Reverse transcriptase-PCR revealed that Fas, soluble Fas, and FasL were expressed in all eight esophageal squamous carcinoma cell lines analyzed. Furtherm...

The counterattack hypothesis, suggesting that cancer cells express Fas ligand (FasL) and are able to kill Fas-expressing tumor-infiltrating activated T cells, was supported by reports of the killing of Jurkat cells by FasL-expressing human colon cancer cell lines. Through the use of an improved cytotoxic assay in which soluble FasL and FasL-transfected KFL9 cells were used as positive controls,...

BACKGROUND Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene and defective expression of CFTR protein in epithelial cells. The main cause of mortality in CF is linked to chronic inflammatory and infectious airway processes. Recent studies have suggested perturbations in the apoptotic process in CF cell lines and ...