Figure 7.
Role of caspase-8 and caspase-9 in P2X7R-mediated apoptosis in rPCNs. (A) Rat PCNs were incubated in serum-free HGGMEM and BzATP (300 µM) was added for 16 h. Cells cultured in B27-AO Neurobasal medium (NB) or in serum-free HGGMEM (−) overnight were used as controls. (B) Cells were treated as in (A) except that the indicated concentration (µM) of a specific caspase-8 inhibitor, Ac-IETDCHO was added for 1 h prior to addition of 300 µM BzATP. (C) Cells were treated as in (B) except that the indicated concentration of a specific caspase-9 inhibitor, Z-LEHD-FMK, was added. ‘Pan’ ( full-length) and cleaved caspase-8 were detected by Western analysis, as described in the Materials and methods. Data are the means ± S.E.M. of results from at least three experiments, where *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 indicate significant differences from either serum-starved (A) or BzATPtreated (B, C) cells.