Apoptosis

Florescence activated cell sorting or Flow cytometry permits concurrent measurements of numerous florescence and light scattered events by illuming single cells or molecules in suspension as they flow through a sensing area. Distinct cells or particles could be tangibly separated corresponding to their biochemical properties and biological parameters, while the light is scattered on the molecules either in the form of forward or side scatter.

Secretory granule-mediated cell death is one of the the key mechanisms for elimination of virus-infected and transformed target cells by cytotoxic lymphocytes.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine protein kinase and has been known to play its role in cell growth and proliferation. mTOR is activated by phosphorylationin response to growth factors, mitogens and hormones. Rapamycin is a macrolide antibiotic from Streptomyces hygroscopicus that specifically inhibit the activity of mTOR.

Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) variously abbreviated as BrdU, BudR, and BrdUrd, is a synthetic thymidine analog that gets incorporated into the DNA of dividing cells during the S-phase of the cell cycle and has a long history of heavy use in molecular and cytokinetic studies (1).

Caspase 9 (also termed ICE-LAP6, Mch6, Apaf-3) is a member of cysteine protease family of caspases and is encoded by the CASP9 gene in humans. Caspase-9 is involved in mitochondrial apoptosis pathway and is an initiator caspase.

Caspase 7 (also known as CASP7, Mch3, ICE-LAP3, CMH-1) is a member of caspase family of cysteine proteases. It is an apoptosis-related cystein peptidase encoded by the CASP7 gene in humans. CASP7 homologous sequences have been identified in nearly all mammals. Similar to Caspase 3, Caspase-7 is an effector caspase and plays a key role in apoptotic execution.

Mitofilin was originally described as a heart muscle protein due to its high expression in the heart. Recently, analysis of the human heart mitochondrial proteome demonstrated that Mitofilin is one of the most abundant mitochondrial proteins (1). Researchers have reported finding two alternately spliced Mitofilin variants producing proteins of 88 and 90 kDa, that were detected in immunoblots with Mitofilin antibodies (2).

A major histopathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the presence of amyloid deposits in the parenchyma of the amygdala, hippocampus, and neocortex. The principal component of amyloid is beta amyloid (AB). The pathologic accumulation of AB in plaques is postulated to result from an imbalance between production and clearance during aging.

Perforin, also known as the pore-forming protein, pfp, is a 70 kD cytolytic protein expressed in the cytoplasmic granules of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and natural killer (NK) cells.

Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases (ERK) also known as the Mitogen-activated Protein Kinase (MAPK), MAPK/ERK proteins are a family of protein-serine/threonine kinases that are activated via the phosphorylation of tyrosine. MAPK/ERK are activated by diverse mechanisms.