BACKGROUND Volatile anesthetics attenuate apoptosis. The underlying mechanisms remain undefined. The authors tested whether isoflurane reduces apoptosis in cardiomyocytes subjected to oxidative or inflammatory stress by enhancing Akt and B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2). METHODS Adult and neonatal rat ventricular myocytes and atrial HL-1 myocytes were exposed to hypoxia, hydrogen peroxide, or neutro...

Sperm chromatin integrity is vital for successful pregnancy and transmission of genetic material to the offspring. We evaluated chromatin integrity in sperm from 60 infertile men and 7 fertile donors comparing the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA), TdT-mediated-dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL), the sperm chromatin dispersion (SCD) test, and acridine orange staining technique (AOT). The TUNEL...

PURPOSE To investigate whether apoptosis plays a notable role in degeneration of corneal endothelial cells in patients with Fuchs' dystrophy. METHODS Forty-seven corneal buttons from 41 patients with Fuchs' dystrophy were studied. Nucleus labeling, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and TdT-dUTP terminal nick-end labeling (TUNEL) were used to detect apoptosis. TEM and TUNEL were performe...

BACKGROUND DNA breaks detected largely by terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate in situ nick end-labeling (TUNEL) are observed in the hearts of patients with diseases such as dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the prognostic value of TUNEL assays in cases of DCM. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS DCM patients were selected from amon...

BACKGROUND The terminal transferase uridyl nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay allows the easy demonstration of cell death as a result of apoptosis. However, when this assay is applied to liver tissue, the number of TUNEL positive cells is dependent on the time of incubation with proteinase K. AIM To test whether false positive results are the result of the release of endogenous endonucleases by...

SUMMARY Although glucocorticoid has been considered to cause thymocyte apoptosis in vitro, few studies have presented its in vivo effect. We report here on kinetics of glucocorticoid-induced murine thymocyte death in vivo by the TUNEL method. TUNEL-positive cells were observed as early as at 2 h after intraperitoneal injection of glucocorticoid. Most TUNEL-positive thymocytes were phagocytosed ...

Cytokines mediate pancreatic islet beta-cell apoptosis and necrosis, leading to loss of insulin secretory capacity and type 1 diabetes mellitus. The cytokines, IL-1beta and interferon-gamma, induced terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated deoxyuridine triphosphate nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining of rat islet cells within 48 h by about 25-30%, indicative of apoptosis and/or necrosis. S...

AIM To investigate whether early apoptotic changes in spermatozoa can be significant markers for sperm quality. METHODS Two early apoptotic changes in the semen of 56 men were assessed using Annexin V (AN)/propidium iodide (PI) staining for phosphatidylserine externalization and JC-1 staining for mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). The results were compared with conventional semen paramet...

In the present paper, the effect of natural environment non-lethal heavy metal concentration on cell renewal of Liza aurata intestinal epithelium, was studied by the TUNEL (terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling) method and anti-PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) immunohistochemistry, in order to detect, respectively, apoptosis and cell proliferation. In ad...

It has previously been shown that acoustic overstimulation induces cell death and extensive cell loss in key structures of the central auditory pathway. A correlation between noise-induced apoptosis and cell loss was hypothesized for the cochlear nucleus and colliculus inferior. To determine the role of cell death in noise-induced cell loss in thalamic and cortical structures, the present mouse...