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Apoptotic Stimuli (apoptotic + stimulus)
Selected AbstractsThe death of cardiotonic steroid-treated cells: evidence of Na+i,K+i -independent H+i -sensitive signallingACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 1-2 2006S. N. Orlov Abstract Na/K-ATPase is the only known target of cardiotonic steroids (CTS) identified in plants, amphibians and later on in several mammalian species, including human. We focus our review on recent data implicating CTS in the tissue-specific regulation of cell survival and death. In vascular smooth muscle cells, CTS inhibited cell death triggered by apoptotic stimuli via a novel Na+i -mediated, Ca2+i -independent mechanism of expression of antiapoptotic genes, including mortalin. In contrast, exposure to CTS in vascular endothelial and renal epithelial cells led to cell death, showing combined markers of apoptosis and necrosis. This mode of cell death, termed oncosis, is caused by CTS interaction with Na/K-ATPase but is independent of the inhibition of Na/K-ATPase-mediated ion fluxes and inversion of the [Na+]i/[K+]i ratio. The intermediates of intracellular signalling involved in Na+i, K+i -independent oncosis of CTS-treated cells remain unknown. Recently, we found that this mode of cell death can be protected by modest intracellular acidification via the expression of H+i -sensitive genes. The molecular origin of intracellular Na+ and H+ sensor involvement in the development of apoptosis and oncosis is currently under investigation. [source] Akt is frequently activated in HER2/neu-positive breast cancers and associated with poor prognosis among hormone-treated patientsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER, Issue 2 2006Eriko Tokunaga Abstract Akt/PKB is a serine/threonine kinase that plays an important role in survival when cells are exposed to different apoptotic stimuli. Aberrant activation of Akt/PKB in breast carcinoma is associated with poor prognosis and resistance to endocrine therapy and chemotherapy. The Akt signaling pathway currently attracts considerable attention as a new target for effective therapeutic strategies. We therefore investigated the relationship between activation of Akt and clinicopathologic variables including hormone receptor and HER2/neu status. Breast cancer tissues obtained from 252 patients were utilized for this study. We evaluated Akt activation by immunohistochemical assessment of the expression of phosphorylated Akt (pAkt) at Ser-473. Eighty-four cases (33.3%) were diagnosed as positive for pAkt expression. pAkt was significantly associated with HER2/neu overexpression (p < 0.0001). There was an inverse correlation between pAkt and PR expression (p = 0.0321); however, there was no association between pAkt and ER expression. Survival analysis showed that pAkt positivity was associated with poor disease-free survival in cases with postoperative hormone therapy; however, there was no association in cases without hormone therapy. Our results indicate that Akt activation induced poor prognosis in patients who received adjuvant hormone therapy. This finding suggests that inhibition of the Akt signaling pathway may increase the efficacy of hormone therapy and improve the prognosis of patients who receive adjuvant hormone therapy. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Involvement of protein kinase C-, in DNA damage-induced apoptosisJOURNAL OF CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE, Issue 4 2003Alakananda Basu Abstract Apoptosis is a highly orchestrated cell suicidal program required to maintain a balance between cell proliferation and cell death. A defect in apoptotic machinery can cause cancer. Many anticancer drugs are known to kill tumor cells by inducing apoptosis, and a defect in apoptosis can lead to anticancer drug resistance. Apoptosis is regulated by a complex cellular signaling network. Several members of the protein kinase C (PKC) family serve as substrates for caspases and PKC, isozyme has been intimately associated with DNA damage-induced apoptosis. It can act both upstream and downstream of caspases. In response to apoptotic stimuli, the full-length and the catalytic fragment of PKC, may translocate to distinct cellular compartments, including mitochondria and the nucleus, to reach their targets. Both activation and intracellular distribution of PKC, may have significant impact on apoptosis. This review intends to assimilate recent views regarding the involvement of PKC, in DNA damage-induced apoptosis. [source] Overexpression of Par-4 enhances thapsigargin-induced apoptosis via down-regulation of XIAP and inactivation of Akt in human renal cancer cellsJOURNAL OF CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2008Tae-Jin Lee Abstract The prostate-apoptosis-response-gene-4 (Par-4) protein has been shown to function as an effector of cell death in response to various apoptotic stimuli that trigger mitochondria and membrane receptor-mediated cell death pathways. We found that overexpressing Par-4 by stable transfection sensitizes Caki cells to induction of apoptosis by TRAIL and drugs that induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress [thapsigargin (TG), tunicamycin (TU) and etoposide]. Ectopic expression of Par-4 is associated with decreased levels of XIAP protein in TG-treated cells, caused in part by XIAP protein instability and caspase activation. Levels of phospho-Akt are decreased in Caki/Par-4 cells to a significantly greater extent than in Caki/Vector cells by treatment with TG, and this is in turn associated with decreased levels of phospho-PDK1, the kinase upstream of Akt. In conclusion, we provide evidence that ectopic expression of Par-4 sensitizes Caki cells to TG and that XIAP protein instability and inactivation of Akt are important in cellular pathways affected by Par-4. J. Cell. Biochem. 103: 358,368, 2008. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Antiapoptotic property of human ,-synuclein in neuronal cell lines is associated with the inhibition of caspase-3 but not caspase-9 activityJOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2005Wenxue Li Abstract Abnormalities of ,-synuclein (,-Syn) are mechanistically linked to Parkinson's disease (PD) and other ,-synucleinopathies. To gain additional insights into the relationships between ,-Syn expression and cell death, we examined the effects of expressing human ,-Syn (Hu,-Syn) variants on the cellular vulnerability to apoptotic stimuli. We show that the expression of wild-type (WT) and A30P mutant, but not A53T mutant, Hu,-Syn leads to the protection of neuronal cell lines from apoptosis but not necrosis. Significantly, Hu,-Syn did not protect non-neuronal cell lines from apoptosis. We also show that A53T mutant is a loss of function in regards to the antiapoptotic property since the expression of WT Hu,-Syn with an excess of A53T mutant Hu,-Syn leads to protection of the cells from apoptosis. The antiapoptotic property is specific to human ,-Syn as neither ,-Syn nor mouse ,-Syn protected cells from apoptosis, and the carboxy-terminal 20 amino acids are required for the antiapoptotic property. Analyses of capase-3 and caspase-9 activation reveal that the antiapoptotic property of Hu,-Syn in neuronal cell lines is associated with the attenuation of caspase-3 activity without affecting the caspase-9 activity or the levels of cleaved, active caspase-3. We conclude that Hu,-Syn modulates the activity of cleaved caspase-3 product in neuronal cell lines. [source] Proteomic Analysis of Shear Stress-Mediated Protection from TNF-, in Endothelial CellsMICROCIRCULATION, Issue 4 2010Julie K. Freed Microcirculation (2010) 17, 259,270. doi: 10.1111/j.1549-8719.2010.00031.x Abstract Previous studies have shown that physiological levels of shear stress can protect endothelial cells (ECs) from apoptotic stimuli. Here, we differentiate between acute and chronic protection and demonstrate the use of proteomic technologies to uncover mechanisms associated with chronic protection of ECs. We hypothesized that changes in abundance of proteins associated with the TNF-, signaling cascade orchestrate shear stress-mediated protection from TNF-, when cells are preconditioned with shear prior to the exposure of apoptotic stimuli. Detection of cleaved caspase 3 through Western blot analysis confirmed chronic shear stress-mediated protection from TNF-,. In the presence of the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, LNMA (N, -monomethyl- l -arginine), chronic protection remained. Treatment with a de novo protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, eliminated this protective effect. Isotopic-labeling experiments, coupled with LC,MS/MS (liquid chromatography,tandem mass spectrometry) of isolated components of the TNF-, pathway revealed that CARD9, a known activator of the NF-,B pathway, was increased (60%) in sheared cells versus nonsheared cells. This result was confirmed through Western blot analysis. Our data suggest that de novo formation of proteins is required for protection from TNF-, in ECs chronically exposed to shear stress, and that CARD9 is a candidate protein in this response. [source] Purification, crystallization and data collection of the apoptotic nuclease endonuclease GACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2009Sei Mee Yoon Endonuclease G (EndoG) is a mitochondrial enzyme that responds to apoptotic stimuli by translocating to the nucleus and cleaving chromosomal DNA. EndoG is the main apoptotic endonuclease in the caspase-independent pathway. Mouse EndoG without the mitochondrial localization signal (amino-acid residues 1,43) was successfully overexpressed, purified and crystallized using a microbatch method under oil. The initial crystal (type I) was grown in the presence of the detergent CTAB and diffracted to 2.8,Å resolution, with unit-cell parameters a = 72.20, b = 81.88, c = 88.66,Å, , = 97.59° in a monoclinic space group. The crystal contained two monomers in the asymmetric unit, with a predicted solvent content of 46.6%. Subsequent mutation of Cys110 improved the stability of the protein significantly and produced further crystals of types II, III and IV with space groups C2, P41212 (or P43212) and P212121, respectively, in various conditions. This suggests the critical involvement of this conserved cysteine residue in the crystallization process. [source] BAK and BAX deletion using zinc-finger nucleases yields apoptosis-resistant CHO cellsBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 2 2010Gregory J. Cost Abstract Anoxic and metabolic stresses in large-scale cell culture during biopharmaceutical production can induce apoptosis. Strategies designed to ameliorate the problem of apoptosis in cell culture have focused on mRNA knockdown of pro-apoptotic proteins and over-expression of anti-apoptotic ones. Apoptosis in cell culture involves mitochondrial permeabilization by the pro-apoptotic Bak and Bax proteins; activity of either protein is sufficient to permit apoptosis. We demonstrate here the complete and permanent elimination of both the Bak and Bax proteins in combination in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells using zinc-finger nuclease-mediated gene disruption. Zinc-finger nuclease cleavage of BAX and BAK followed by inaccurate DNA repair resulted in knockout of both genes. Cells lacking Bax and Bak grow normally but fail to activate caspases in response to apoptotic stimuli. When grown using scale-down systems under conditions that mimic growth in large-scale bioreactors they are significantly more resistant to apoptosis induced by starvation, staurosporine, and sodium butyrate. When grown under starvation conditions, BAX - and BAK -deleted cells produce two- to fivefold more IgG than wild-type CHO cells. Under normal growth conditions in suspension culture in shake flasks, double-knockout cultures achieve equal or higher cell densities than unmodified wild-type cultures and reach viable cell densities relevant for large-scale industrial protein production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010; 105: 330,340. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Contrasting effects of HSP72 expression on apoptosis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and an angiogenic cell line, ECV304BRITISH JOURNAL OF HAEMATOLOGY, Issue 4 2000M. Lucas The effect of overexpression of heat shock protein (HSP)72 on apoptosis induced by different stimuli in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the angiogenic cell line, ECV304, was studied. Transient overexpression of HSP72 was achieved using an adenoviral vector (Advhsp72) and apoptosis was induced by heat shock, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-, with cycloheximide (CHX), lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with TNF-, and verocytotoxin (VT). Apoptosis induced by heat shock was reduced by HSP72 expression. However, HSP72 expression in HUVECs increased apoptosis induced by TNF-,/CHX, LPS and VT measured by flow cytometric analysis of propidium iodide (PI)-stained permeabilized cells. In contrast, apoptosis in ECV304 induced by the same stimuli was reduced by HSP72 expression. No difference was seen in cells transduced with a control adenoviral vector expressing ,-galactosidase. These data imply that induction of HSP72 in cells modulates responses to apoptotic stimuli, but that the nature of the response varies with the cell type. However, it is clear that in situations where apoptosis may be part of a pathological process, HSP72 induction, for example by reperfusion injury, may exacerbate the process. [source] | |||||||||||||