Caspases not only play an essential role during apoptotic cell death, but a subfamily of them-the inflammatory caspases-are associated with immune responses to microbial pathogens. Activation of inflammatory caspases, such as caspase-1 and caspase-5, occurs upon assembly of an intracellular complex, designated the inflammasome. This results in the cleavage and activation of the proinflammatory ...

Apoptosis, programmed cell death, has a central role in developmental biology and maintaining the equilibrium of renewing tissues. A founding member Bcl-2 family regulatory proteins for apoptosis is Bcl-2, which encoded by BCL2 gene. Caspase-3 shares typical features with all caspases, including acting as crucial mediator apoptosis.

Background: Calotropis gigantea (family: Asclepiadaceae) has been known to contain cardiac glycosides. The C. gigantea extracts have been reported as cytotoxic to a few cancer cell lines. The present study was designed to examine the effect of Calotropis gigantea methanolic extract (CGME) on the growth and apoptosis in human breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7 cells).Methods: The study was ...

Introduction: Repetitive cortical spreading depression (CSD) can lead to cell death in immature brain tissue. Caspases are involved in neuronal cell death in several CSD-related neurological disorders. Yet, whether repetitive CSD itself can induce caspase activation in adult or juvenile tissue remains unknown. Inducing repetitive CSD in somatosensory cortices of juvenile and adult rats in vivo,...