| First Author | Fernando P | Year | 2005 |
| Journal | FASEB J | Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | 1671-3 |
| PubMed ID | 16103108 | Mgi Jnum | J:102656 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3607880 | Doi | 10.1096/fj.04-2981fje |
| Citation | Fernando P, et al. (2005) Neural stem cell differentiation is dependent upon endogenous caspase 3 activity. FASEB J 19(12):1671-3 |
| abstractText | Caspase proteases have become the focal point for the development and application of anti-apoptotic therapies in a variety of central nervous system diseases. However, this approach is based on the premise that caspase function is limited to invoking cell death signals. Here, we show that caspase-3 activity is elevated in nonapoptotic differentiating neuronal cell populations. Moreover, peptide inhibition of protease activity effectively inhibits the differentiation process in a cultured neurosphere model. These results implicate caspase-3 activation as a conserved feature of neuronal differentiation and suggest that targeted inhibition of this protease in neural cell populations may have unintended consequences. |
