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Query: UNIPROT:P42574 (caspase-3)
 45,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Induction of apoptosis seems to be a key function in maintaining normal cell growth by exerting negative controls on cell proliferation and suppressing tumorigenesis. The adenovirus E1A oncogene shows both cell cycle progression and apoptotic functions. To understand the mechanism of E1A-induced apoptosis, the apoptotic function of E1A 13S was investigated in p53-null cells. We show here that E1A is sufficient by itself to induce substantial apoptosis independent of p53 and other adenoviral genes. The apoptotic function of E1A is accompanied by processing of caspase-3 and cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose)-polymerase. Cell death is significantly blocked by the caspase inhibitor zVAD-fmk and when coexpressed with E1B19K, Bcl-2 or the retinoblastoma protein (RB). Analyses of E1A mutants indicated that the apoptotic activity of E1A correlates closely with the ability to bind the key regulators of E2F1-induced apoptosis, p300 and RB. Finally, in vivo relevance of down-modulation of p53-independent apoptosis for efficient transformation is demonstrated.
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PMID:E1A is sufficient by itself to induce apoptosis independent of p53 and other adenoviral gene products. 1071 32

Thymic negative selection is the process in which maturing thymocytes that express T-cell receptors recognizing self are eliminated by apoptotic cell death. The molecular mechanism by which this occurs is poorly understood. Notably, genes involved in cell death, even thymocyte death, such as Fas, Fas-ligand, p53, caspase-1, caspase-3, and caspase-9, and Bcl-2 have been found to not be required for normal thymic negative selection. We have demonstrated previously that E2F1-deficient mice have a defect in thymocyte apoptosis. Here we show that E2F1 is required for normal thymic negative selection. Furthermore, we observed an E2F1-dependent increase of p53 protein levels during the process of thymic clonal deletion, which suggests that E2F1 regulates activation-induced apoptosis of self-reactive thymocytes by a p53-dependent mechanism. In contrast, other apoptotic pathways operating on developing thymocytes, such as glucocorticoid-induced cell death, are not mediated by E2F1. The T lymphocytes that escape thymic negative selection migrate to the peripheral immune system but do not appear to be autoreactive, indicating that there may exist E2F1-independent mechanisms of peripheral tolerance, which protect mice from developing an autoimmune response. We expect that E2F1-deficient mice will provide a useful tool for understanding the molecular mechanism of and the immunological importance of thymic negative selection.
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PMID:A role for E2F1 in the induction of apoptosis during thymic negative selection. 1071 65

Although B-amyloid (AB) is suggested to play an important role in Alzheimer's disease, the mechanisms that control AB-evoked toxicity are unclear. We demonstrated previously that the cell cycle-related cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6/retinoblastoma protein pathway is required for AB-mediated death. However, the downstream target(s) of this pathway are unknown. We show here that neurons lacking E2F1, a transcription factor regulated by the retinoblastoma protein, are significantly protected from death evoked by AB. Moreover, p53 deficiency does not protect neurons from death, indicating that E2F1-mediated death occurs independently of p53. Neurons protected by E2F1 deficiency have reduced Bax-dependent caspase 3-like activity. However, protection afforded by E2F1, Bax, or caspase 3 deficiency is transient. In the case of E2F1, but not with Bax or caspase 3 deficiency, delayed death is accompanied by DEVD-AFC cleavage activity. Taken together, these results demonstrate the required role of E2F1, Bax, and caspase 3 in AB evoked death, but also suggest the participation of elements independent of these apoptosis regulators.
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PMID:E2F1 mediates death of B-amyloid-treated cortical neurons in a manner independent of p53 and dependent on Bax and caspase 3. 1076 69

The transcription factor E2F1 is known to mediate apoptosis in isolated quiescent and postmitotic cardiac myocytes, and its absence decreases the size of brain infarction following cerebral ischemia. To demonstrate directly that E2F1 modulates neuronal apoptosis, we used cultured cortical neurons to show a temporal association of the transcription and expression of E2F1 in neurons with increased neuronal apoptosis. Cortical neurons lacking E2F1 expression (derived from E2F1 -/- mice) were resistant to staurosporine-induced apoptosis as evidenced by the significantly lower caspase 3-like activity and a lesser number of cells with apoptotic morphology in comparison with cortical cultures derived from wild-type mice. Furthermore, overexpressing E2F1 alone using replication-deficient recombinant adenovirus was sufficient to cause neuronal cell death by apoptosis, as evidenced by the appearance of hallmarks of apoptosis, such as the threefold increase in caspase 3-like activity and increased laddered DNA fragmentation, in situ endlabeled DNA fragmentation, and numbers of neuronal cells with punctate nuclei. Taken together, we conclude that E2F1 plays a key role in modulating neuronal apoptosis.
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PMID:The transcription factor E2F1 modulates apoptosis of neurons. 1085 51

Expression of retinoic acid receptor beta (RARbeta) is reported to be absent or down-regulated in oral squamous cell carcinomas. Recently, we found that the growth-inhibitory effect of 9-cis-retinoic acid (9CRA) on oral squamous cell carcinoma may depend on the expression levels of endogenous RARbeta. In order to clarify the role of RARbeta in growth and differentiation, we transfected RARbeta expression vector into oral squamous carcinoma cell lines, HSC-4 and Ho-1-N-1. Both RARbeta-transfected cell lines displayed growth inhibition. Moreover, RARbeta-transfected clones underwent morphological changes, and RARbeta-transfected HSC-4 clones underwent apoptosis even in the absence of 9CRA treatment. In contrast, RARbeta-transfected Ho-1-N-1 clones exhibited cell cycle arrest without undergoing apoptosis initially; however, apoptosis was induced in these cells after 6 days of 9CRA treatment. RARalpha and RARgamma expression was reduced at both the protein and mRNA levels in RARbeta transfectants, whereas the expression of retinoid X receptor alpha (RXRalpha) was not altered. RARb transfectants exhibited alterations in the levels of cell cycle-associated proteins, histone acetyltransferase (HAT) and apoptosis-associated proteins. After 6 days of 9CRA treatment, RARbeta transfectants overexpressed Waf1 / Cip1 / Sdi1 / p21, Kip1 / p27, chk1, p300 / CBP, BAX, Bak, Apaf 1, caspase 3 and caspase 9. Conversely, E2F1, cdc25B and HDAC1 were down-regulated in these transfectants. In addition, histone H4 acetylation was induced in RARb transfectants. These findings suggest that histone acetylation mediated by histone acetyltransferase and p300 / CBP may play a role in the growth arrest and apoptosis induced by RARbeta transfection in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
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PMID:Overexpression of retinoic acid receptor beta induces growth arrest and apoptosis in oral cancer cell lines. 1117 43

The transcription factor E2F1 mRNA and protein levels increased in rat cortical neurons in response to dopamine (DA)- or 6-hydroxydopamine (OHDA)-evoked apoptosis. Increased E2F1 protein was detected in the nucleus of neurons by double fluorescent immunocytochemistry using antibodies to E2F1 and NeuN. DA and 6-OHDA induced caspase-3-mediated apoptosis of cortical neurons which was attenuated by the addition of antioxidants or caspase-3 inhibitors to the cultures. Antioxidants prevented DA-evoked neuronal apoptosis, and also attenuated the increase in E2F1 expression. These findings suggest that increased expression of the transcription factor E2F1 may serve as a death signal during DA-evoked neuronal apoptosis.
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PMID:Increased expression of the transcription factor E2F1 during dopamine-evoked, caspase-3-mediated apoptosis in rat cortical neurons. 1140 18

The brain's response to ischemia, which helps determine clinical outcome after stroke, is regulated partly by competing genetic programs that respectively promote cell survival and delayed cell death. Many genes involved in this response have been identified individually or systematically, providing insights into the molecular basis of ischemic injury and potential targets for therapy. The development of microarray systems for gene expression profiling permits screening of large numbers of genes for possible involvement in biological or pathological processes. Therefore, we used an oligodeoxynucleotide-based microarray consisting of 374 human genes, most implicated previously in apoptosis or related events, to detect alterations in gene expression in the hippocampus of rats subjected to 15 minutes of global cerebral ischemia followed by up to 72 hours of reperfusion. We found 1.7-fold or greater increases in the expression of 57 genes and 1.7-fold or greater decreases in the expression of 34 genes at 4, 24, or 72 hours after ischemia. The number of induced genes increased from 4 to 72 hours, whereas the number of repressed genes decreased. The induced genes included genes involved in protein synthesis, genes mutated in hereditary human diseases, proapoptotic genes, antiapoptotic genes, injury-response genes, receptors, ion channels, and enzymes. We detected transcriptional induction of several genes implicated previously in cerebral ischemia, including ALG2, APP, CASP3, CLU, ERCC3, GADD34, GADD153, IGFBP2, TIAR, VEGF, and VIM, as well as other genes not so implicated. We also found coinduction of several groups of related genes that might represent functional modules within the ischemic neuronal transcriptome, including VEGF and its receptor, NRP1; the IGF1 receptor and the IGF1-binding protein IGFBP2; Rb, the Rb-binding protein E2F1, and the E2F-related transcription factor, TFDP1; the CACNB3 and CACNB4 beta-subunits of the voltage-gated calcium channel; and caspase-3 and its substrates, ACINUS, FEM1, and GSN. To test the hypothesis that genes identified through this approach might have roles in the pathophysiology of cerebral ischemia, we measured expression of the products of two induced genes not heretofore implicated in cerebral ischemia-GRB2, an adapter protein involved in growth-factor signaling pathways, and SMN1, which participates in RNA processing and is deleted in most cases of spinal muscular atrophy. Western analysis showed enhanced expression of both proteins in hippocampus at 24 to 72 hours after ischemia, and SMN1 was localized by immunohistochemistry to hippocampal neurons. These results suggest that microarray analysis of gene expression may be useful for elucidating novel molecular mediators of cell death and survival in the ischemic brain.
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PMID:Microarray analysis of hippocampal gene expression in global cerebral ischemia. 1145 15

The E2F1 transcription factor plays an important role in promoting neuronal apoptosis; however, it is not clear how E2F1 does this. Here we show that E2F1 is involved in dopamine (DA)-evoked apoptosis in cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs). E2F1 -/- CGNs and CGNs expressing an antisense E2F1 cDNA were significantly protected from DA-toxicity relative to controls. The neuronal protection was accompanied by significantly reduced caspase 3 activity. E2F1-mediated neuronal apoptosis did not require activation of gene transcription because: (1) ectopic expression of E2F1 or its mutants lacking the transactivation domain induced neuronal apoptosis, whereas an E2F1 mutant lacking the DNA-binding domain did not; (2) under all of these conditions, known E2F1 target genes including cyclin A, cdc2 and p19(ARF) were not induced; and (3) DA-evoked neuronal apoptosis was associated with up-regulated E2F1, but not transcription of its target genes. Finally, E2F1-mediated neuronal apoptosis was associated with reduced nuclear factor (NF)-kappaB DNA-binding activity. Taken together, these data suggest that E2F1 promotes DA-evoked caspase 3-dependent neuronal apoptosis by a mechanism independent of gene transactivation, and this may possibly occur through inhibition of anti-apoptotic genes including NF-kappaB.
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PMID:The transcription factor E2F1 promotes dopamine-evoked neuronal apoptosis by a mechanism independent of transcriptional activation. 1146 64

Apoptotic cell death is an important mode of cell loss contributing to heart dysfunction. To analyze the importance of the E2F-dependent regulation of gene transcription in cardiomyocyte apoptosis, the function of cell cycle factors impinging on the retinoblastoma protein (pRb)/E2F pathway was investigated. In isolated neonatal ventricular myocytes, apoptotic cell death induced by hypoxia (deferoxamine, 100 micro mol/L) specifically activated cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks) 2 and 3. Apoptotic cell death was inhibited by ectopic expression of cdk inhibitors p21(CIP) and p27(KIP1) but not p16(INK4). In addition, apoptosis was also abrogated by forced expression of kinase dead mutant proteins of cdk2/3 but not of cdk4/6. Introduction of cdk inhibitors or dominant-negative cdk2/3 blocked pRb hyperphosphorylation and abrogated E2F-dependent gene transcription, including that of the E2F-responsive genes of proapoptotic caspase 3 and caspase 7. Moreover, introduction of constitutively active pRb and transcriptionally inert mutant E2F1/DP1 efficiently protected cardiomyocytes from apoptosis. In conclusion, these data demonstrate that cdk-specific inactivation of pRb and the subsequent activation of E2F-dependent gene transcription are required for cardiomyocyte apoptosis.
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PMID:Inhibition of hypoxia-induced apoptosis by modulation of retinoblastoma protein-dependent signaling in cardiomyocytes. 1241 92

The human papilloma virus-type 16 (HPV-16) E6 and E7 proteins interact with the p53 and pRb tumor suppressor proteins, respectively. The effect of E6 or E7 expression on UV irradiation (5 and 20 J/m2)-induced genotoxic injury of confluent primary murine astrocytes was determined. Retroviral vectors were used to overexpress E6 and E7. Astrocytes expressing E7 showed increased vulnerability to UV-induced apoptosis while E6 over expressing astrocytes were protected from the same insults. Cell death in the E7 overexpressing cells was apoptotic because it showed DNA ladders, activation of caspase-3, formation of apoptotic bodies and decreased DNA content to less than the G0 level. After UV-irradiation the level of E2F1 in E7-expressing astrocytes was higher than E6-, LXSN- or mock-infected cells, and caspase-3 was activated to a greater extent. E7-expressing astrocytes showed the highest levels of Bax under normal growth conditions. The mitochondrial membrane potential of E7-expressing astrocytes was depolarized by 90% after UV-irradiation while the depolarization in control cells was about 50%. E6 overexpression decreased while E7 overexpression increased UV-induced astrocyte apoptosis.
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PMID:UV-vulnerability of human papilloma virus type-16 E7-expressing astrocytes is associated with mitochondrial membrane depolarization and caspase-3 activation. 1244 3


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