introduction: repetitive cortical spreading depression (csd) can lead to cell death in immature brain tissue. caspases are involved in neuronal cell death in several csd-related neurological disorders. yet, whether repetitive csd itself can induce caspase activation in adult or juvenile tissue remains unknown. inducing repetitive csd in somatosensory cortices of juvenile and adult rats in vivo,...

Caspase 8 is an initiator caspase that is activated by death receptors to initiate the extrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Caspase 8 activation involves dimerization and subsequent interdomain autoprocessing of caspase 8 zymogens, and recently published work has established that elimination of the autoprocessing site of caspase 8 abrogates its pro-apoptotic function while leaving its proliferative ...