ISSN:
1420-9071
Keywords:
Key words. Ceramide; HeLa cell; apoptosis; egg extract; cytochrome c; nuclei.
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract. Ceramide has been reported to induce typical apoptotic changes in nuclei incubated in a cell-free system, and that the addition of ceramide bypasses the requirement for mitochondria. Here, we explore the possible pathways by which ceramide induces apoptosis either in intact cells or in a cell-free system which we have developed. We found that in the cell-free system, C2-ceramide is not able to induce apoptosis in nuclei whereas cytochrome c does, but it is able to induce HeLa cells to undergo apoptosis. Ceramide is also not able to induce apoptosis when added into the cell-free system together with purified mitochondria. Further investigation showed that C2-ceramide at certain concentrations greatly increases nuclear apoptosis caused by cytochrome c in the cell-free system. From these results we conclude that the induction of apoptosis by ceramide may require intact cells in which some unknown signal transduction pathways are involved.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/PL00000748
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