The aim of the present study was to evaluate the distribution of apoptotic neurons in the nuclei of the brainstem. Apoptosis was studied by the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) assay, in human brainstems taken at autopsy from 15 adults (age range: 25-58 years). The nuclei examined included the hypoglossal nucleus (XII), dorsal motor nucleus of the va...

BACKGROUND Pemphigus is part of a group of blistering diseases that affect the skin and mucous membranes. Based on its autoimmune origin, autoantibodies develop in pemphigus that are directed toward cell surface components of keratinocytes. However, some data cannot be explained, such as the lack of a relationship between autoantibody levels and the severity of clinical manifestations, treatmen...

The aim of this study was to clarify whether myocardial cells with DNA fragmentation induced by ischemia show increased plasma-membrane permeability (PMP), focusing on the early lesions of acute myocardial ischemia (AMI). Rat AMI was induced by a permanent occlusion of the left coronary artery. The TUNEL method was used for the demonstration of DNA fragmentation, and lanthanum ions (La) were em...

The extent to which programmed cell death is the fate of proliferative, rather than post-mitotic, cells remains controversial, but a preponderance of evidence suggests that at least some cells within the brain's proliferative zone die during mammalian brain development. One major unresolved question is the extent to which cell death in the proliferative zone is spatiotemporally patterned. In or...

We examined the temporospatial pattern of naturally occurring apoptosis in chick embryos to five days of incubation (H.H. stages 1-25; Hamburger and Hamilton, 1951) using TUNEL labeling. The initial TUNEL-positive structure was the embryonic shield at stage 1. Apoptotic cells became ubiquitously present within embryos by stage 3, which is early in gastrulation. Until stage 6, TUNEL-positive cel...

BACKGROUND In this study we present the physiological changes observed in ejaculated spermatozoa of normospermic men after exposure to hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) or gamma irradiation. METHODS Motility changes as well as membrane and DNA-damage were determined in spermatozoa after incubation with 25 micromol/l of H(2)O(2) during increasing intervals of time (0--60 min and after 24 h) or afte...

PURPOSE TUNEL assay is widely used to evaluate cell death. Quantification of TUNEL-positive (TUNEL+) cells in tissue sections is usually performed manually, ideally by two masked observers. This process is time consuming, prone to measurement errors, and not entirely reproducible. In this paper, we describe an automated quantification approach to address these difficulties. METHODS We develop...