Autor: |
Roth KA; Department of Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. kroth@pathology.wustl.edu, Kuan C, Haydar TF, D'Sa-Eipper C, Shindler KS, Zheng TS, Kuida K, Flavell RA, Rakic P |
Jazyk: |
angličtina |
Zdroj: |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A] 2000 Jan 04; Vol. 97 (1), pp. 466-71. |
DOI: |
10.1073/pnas.97.1.466 |
Abstrakt: |
The number of neurons in the mammalian brain is determined by a balance between cell proliferation and programmed cell death. Recent studies indicated that Bcl-X(L) prevents, whereas Caspase-3 mediates, cell death in the developing nervous system, but whether Bcl-X(L) directly blocks the apoptotic function of Caspase-3 in vivo is not known. To examine this question, we generated bcl-x/caspase-3 double mutants and found that caspase-3 deficiency abrogated the increased apoptosis of postmitotic neurons but not the increased hematopoietic cell death and embryonic lethality caused by the bcl-x mutation. In contrast, caspase-3, but not bcl-x, deficiency changed the normal incidence of neuronal progenitor cell apoptosis, consistent with the lack of expression of Bcl-X(L) in the proliferative population of the embryonic cortex. Thus, although Caspase-3 is epistatically downstream to Bcl-X(L) in postmitotic neurons, it independently regulates apoptosis of neuronal founder cells. Taken together, these results establish a role of programmed cell death in regulating the size of progenitor population in the central nervous system, a function that is distinct from the classic role of cell death in matching postmitotic neuronal population with postsynaptic targets. |
Databáze: |
MEDLINE |
Externí odkaz: |
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