Apoptotic cell death is characterized by several morphological nuclear changes, such as chromatin condensation and extensive fragmentation of chromosomal DNA. These alterations are primarily triggered through the activation of caspases, which subsequently cleave nuclear substrates. Caspase-3 induces processing of Acinus, which leads to chromatin condensation. DNA fragmentation is dependent on t...

Mesothelial cells, the progenitor cells of the asbestos-induced tumor mesothelioma, are particularly sensitive to the toxic effects of asbestos, although the molecular mechanisms by which asbestos induces injury in mesothelial cells are not known. We asked whether asbestos induced apoptosis in mesothelial cells and whether reactive oxygen species were important. Rabbit pleural mesothelial cells...

Protein kinase A (PKA) and the nuclear A-kinase-anchoring protein AKAP95 have previously been shown to localize in separate compartments in interphase but associate at mitosis. We demonstrate here a role for the mitotic AKAP95-PKA complex. In HeLa cells, AKAP95 is associated with the nuclear matrix in interphase and redistributes mostly into a chromatin fraction at mitosis. In a cytosolic extra...

Elevated serum and tissue bilirubin concentrations that occur in pathological conditions such as cholestasis, jaundice, and other liver diseases are known to stimulate cytotoxic responses. In preliminary studies, we noted that bilirubin seemed to cause apoptosis in murine hepatoma Hepa 1c1c7 wild-type (WT) cells. Consequently, we investigated apoptosis caused by bilirubin in WT, mutant C12 [ary...

Recently, a theoretical model of Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) mechanism has been developed to describe low-energy nuclear reaction in a quantum many-body system confined in a micro/nano scale trap. The BEC mechanism is applied to explain various anomalous results observed recently in experiments involved with low–energy nuclear reaction processes in matter and in acoustic cavitation. Experi...

Cell cycles in early amphibian embryos are characterized by the absence of G1 and G2 phases. The simple cycle of S phase and mitosis does show similarities with other systems, particularly in the presence of cytoplasmic components advancing nuclei into DNA synthesis and mitosis. Maturation-promoting factor induces nuclear envelope breakdown and subsequent chromosome condensation. Cytoplasmic fa...

The innuence of correlations on the critical temperature and density for the onset of superruidity in nuclear matter is investigated within the scheme of Nozi eres and Schmitt-Rink 1]. For symmetric nuclear matter a smooth transition from Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of deuteron-like bound states at low densities and low temperatures to Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieeer (BCS) pair-ing at higher dens...

In brain development, excitatory and inhibitory neurons show distinct types of migration, radial migration and tangential migration, respectively. Whether these two types of migration are operated by similar cellular mechanisms remains unclear. Here we examined mice deficient in mDia, a Rho-regulated actin nucleator, in neuronal migration. mDia deficiency impaired tangential migration of cortic...

Like other eukaryotes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae spatially organizes its chromosomes within the nucleus. In G1 phase, the yeast's 32 telomeres are clustered into 6-10 foci that dynamically interact with the nuclear membrane. Here we show that, when cells leave the division cycle and enter quiescence, telomeres gather into two to three hyperclusters at the nuclear membrane vicinity. This localiza...

Amassments of heterochromatin in somatic cells occur in close contact with the nuclear envelope (NE) but are gapped by channel- and cone-like zones that appear largely free of heterochromatin and associated with the nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). To identify proteins involved in forming such heterochromatin exclusion zones (HEZs), we used a cell culture model in which chromatin condensation ind...