The goals of this work were to establish a reproducible and effective model of apoptosis in a cell line derived from advanced prostate cancer and to study the role of the caspase family of proteases in mediating apoptosis in this system. The study involved the use of the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Apoptosis was induced using the hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, ...

Caspases are a powerful class of cysteine proteases. Introduction of activated caspases in healthy or cancerous cells results in induction of apoptotic cell death. In this study, we have designed and characterized a version of caspase-7 that can be inactivated under oxidizing extracellular conditions and then reactivated under reducing intracellular conditions. This version of caspase-7 is allo...

Breast cancer is a prevalent malignancy among women, especially in developing countries. A large number of anticancer agents with herbal origins have been reported. Hence, herbals may play an essential role in prevention and treatment of cancers. We investigated cytotoxic effects of dichloromethane fractions of Scrophularia oxysepala extract on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The cytotoxic a...

Unilateral injection of 50 nmol of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) into the left posterior striatum of 7 day-old rat pups induces massive neuronal loss in the ipsilateral hemisphere in 5 days. In this model of excitotoxicity, the form of neuronal death (necrosis vs apoptosis) has not been clearly addressed. Here we report evidence of DNA laddering in the ipsilateral hemisphere 24 h after the NMDA i...

The life cycle of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is linked to epithelial differentiation, with late viral events restricted to the uppermost stratified layers. Our studies indicated that HPV activates capases-3, -7, and -9 upon differentiation, whereas minimal activation was observed in differentiating normal keratinocytes. Activation occurred in the absence of significant levels of apoptosis, s...

The goals of this work were to establish a reproducible and effective model of apoptosis in a cell line derived from advanced prostate cancer and to study the role of the caspase family of proteases in mediating apoptosis in this system. The study involved the use of the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Apoptosis was induced using the hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, ...

At weaning, milk producing mammary epithelial cells undergo apoptosis and are removed by phagocytosis. Here, we show that mouse mammary gland involution is associated with mitochondrial cytochrome c release and processing of numerous caspases, including caspase-1, -3, -7, -8 and -9. Induction of caspase-3-like activity paralleled cleavage of poly-(ADP--ribose) polymerase. Dexamethasone inhibite...

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) induces apoptosis via the death receptors DR4 and DR5 in different transformed cells in vitro and exhibits potent antitumor activity in vivo with minor side effects. The synthetic retinoid CD437 is a potent inducer of apoptosis in cancer cells through increased levels of death receptors. We demonstrate that treatment of human lung ...