In this study, the mechanisms involved in the inhibitory effect of histamine (HA) on PANC-1 cell proliferation were investigated. The action of HA on cell growth was evaluated by determining the cell doubling time from experimental growth curves and analysing the cell cycle using a flow cytometer. The expression of proteins related to cell death and proliferation (PCNA, p53, c-Fos and Bcl-2 fam...

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common malignant tumor in South China. It has been reported that overexpression of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins in NPC has caused the lack of long-term efficacy of conventional therapies. Apogossypolone (ApoG2), a novel small-molecule inhibitor of antiapoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins, has been discovered as the optimized derivative of gossypol. In this ...

This study aims to explore the cytotoxic, apoptotic and autophagic effects of thymoquinone on human acute myeloid leukemia. The cytotoxic were determined with 3-(4, 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) tests. B-cell lymphoma 2 associated X protein (Bax), (Bcl-2), caspase 3, mammalian target rapamycin (mTOR), phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K), kinase B (AKT) gene expr...

We examined the effects of cadmium on the bcl-2 family of proteins--bcl-2, bax, bad, and bcl-xS/L--in cadmium-induced cytotoxicity. Addition of 10 microM cadmium to cultured porcine kidney LLC-PK(1) cells caused apoptosis. Western blot analyses revealed that cadmium markedly increased endogenous bcl-2 protein (to 3-4 times the level in wild-type cells) earlier than metallothionein induction, bu...

A poptosis, or programmed cell death, is a process in multicellular organisms for the elimination of damaged and unneeded cells that prevents pathologic conditions and maintains tissue homeostasis. Although aspects were first described a century before, it was not until 1972 that Kerr et al. morphologically characterized the phenomenon and named it apoptosis (1) and another two decades later th...

Caspases, a family of specific proteases, have central roles in apoptosis [1]. Caspase activation in response to diverse apoptotic stimuli involves the relocalisation of cytochrome c from mitochondria to the cytoplasm where it stimulates the proteolytic processing of caspase precursors. Cytochrome c release is controlled by members of the Bcl-2 family of apoptosis regulators [2] [3]. The anti-a...

The Bcl-2 family proteins are critical apoptosis regulators that associate with mitochondria and control the activation of caspases. Recently, both mammalian and C. elegans Bcl-2 proteins have been implicated in controlling mitochondrial fusion and fission processes in both living and apoptotic cells. To better understand the potential roles of Bcl-2 family proteins in regulating mitochondrial ...