Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P42574 (caspase-3)
 45,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Apoptosis is a natural process which accompanies human ovary from the moment of birth until old age. While it is a well-known process at the reproductive age, it still needs to be thoroughly examined when referring to the postmenopausal age. The study involved 30 postmenopausal women who had their ovaries removed by laparotomy due to nonneoplastic diseases of the uterus. The women were divided into 3 groups depending on the time that had passed since the last menstruation. Group A consisted of women who had their last menstruation no more than 5 years earlier. In group B menopause occurred 5 to 10 years earlier. Group C was composed of patients who had the last menstruation over 10 years earlier. In all the patients concentrations of follitropin (FSH) and estradiol (E2) in blood plasma were measured. Ovarian tissue was obtained during surgery. For morphological studies, ovaries were fixed in Bouin's solution and 4% formalin and embedded in paraffin. Morphological analysis was carried out after hematoxylin-eosin (H-E) staining. For histochemical detection of apoptotic cells (in situ localization of fragment DNA), the TUNEL method was used. The expression of caspase-3 positive cells was determined immunohistochemically in paraffin-embedded specimens. Comparing to groups A and B, the ovaries in group C contained small number of corpora albicantia located in the medullary part as well as thinned blood vessels and few lymphatic vessels and nerves. In contrast to group A where the number of TUNEL-positive cells was high and caspase-3 expression was observed, no TUNEL-positive nuclei and caspase-3 expression were found in the examined ovaries of group C women.
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PMID:Apoptosis in ovarian cells in postmenopausal women. 1759 23

Smac/DIABLO protein promotes caspase-dependent apoptosis by inhibition of inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family members. The role of Smac/DIABLO in breast cancer has not been yet established. Therefore, the aim of the study was to assess the expression of this protein in tumor cells from breast cancer patients. The expression of Smac/DIABLO was analyzed in 62 breast cancer patients by flow cytometry. The obtained results were compared with expression of this protein in benign breast tumor tissue, which served as the control (11 patients with fibroadenoma). Expression of caspase-3 proteins in breast cancer was also evaluated. Smac/DIABLO expression in breast cancer was correlated with clinical and pathological data. Although the expression of Smac/DIABLO protein was found in all examined samples of both the breast cancer and fibroadenoma patients, the median expression of Smac/Diablo in breast cancer was significantly lower than in the control (39.1% vs. 48.1%; p=0.0047). Smac/DIABLO expression correlated with expression of caspase-3 (p=0.000008). In pT1 breast cancer patients, expression of Smac/DIABLO protein was higher than in those with pT2-3 (p=0.02). Diffuse cancer infiltration significantly correlated with lower expression of Smac/DIABLO protein (p=0.02). Moreover, there was a loose correlation between low expression of Smac/DIABLO protein and cancer embolus in minor blood and lymphatic vessels (p=0.08). Our results indicate that expression of Smac/DIABLO inversely correlates with the tumor stage, which may suggest that this protein may play an important role in the breast cancer development.
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PMID:Correlation of Smac/DIABLO protein expression with the clinico-pathological features of breast cancer patients. 2174 97

The intravessel microenvironment has significant effects on cancer metastasis. The aim of the present study was to determine how the morphologic and immunophenotypic features of cancer cells and infiltrating stromal cells within the permeated lymphatic vessels are associated with lymphogenic metastasis. A total of 137 primary lung adenocarcinoma patients with extratumoral lymphatic permeations were examined. Morphologically, the floating cancer nests within the permeated lymphatic vessels were divided into two types: Type A, consisting of a single large cancer nest; and Type B, consisting of multiple small cancer nests. We compared the clinicopathologic characteristics and the immunophenotypes of the cancer cells and infiltrating stromal cells between the Type A and Type B nests. Eleven of 54 Type A patients (20%) had intrapulmonary metastases, compared with 36 of 83 Type B patients (43%; P = 0.006). Immunohistochemically, Type B cancer cells expressed significantly higher levels of CD44 than Type A cancer cells (mean scoresAUTHOR: Scores - what is this score? Is it the number of cells expressing CD44 or the concentration of CD44 or some other type of scoring system? 43.0 vs 20.5, respectively) and E-cadherin (60.5 vs 31.5, respectively), but lower levels of Geminin (11.9% vs 20.3%, respectively) and cleaved caspase 3 (2.4% vs 7.8%AUTHOR: 11.9% vs 20.3%, respectively) and cleaved caspase 3 (2.4% vs 7.8%, - what do the percentages here refer to? The number of cells expressing geminin and caspase 3? The levels of these factors? Please clarify., respectively). Moreover, a significantly larger number of CD204-positive macrophages were present within the cancer-permeated lymphatic vessels in Type B patients than in Type A patients (mean number 9.5 vs 4.6, respectively). The present study reveals that intralymphatic cancer cell and stromal cell phenotypes are susceptible to lymphogenic metastasis, suggesting that lymphogenic metastasis may be affected by the intralymphatic microenvironment they create.
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PMID:Morphophenotypic characteristics of intralymphatic cancer and stromal cells susceptible to lymphogenic metastasis. 2242 11