Fig. 7.

Caspase-3 activity in control versus acidotic rats treated with N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA). Control rats and acidotic rats (n = 4 for each) were intraperitoneally injected with NMDA (75 mg/kg body wt), and hippocampi were isolated 3 days later and lysed. Lysates were incubated with the caspase substrate Ac-DVED-p-nitroanilide at 37°C overnight. The production of p-nitroanilide was measured by the absorbance at 405 nm. The unit is pmole of p-nitroanilide per milligram of total protein. Positive and negative controls were incubations of purified caspase-3 without lysates in the absence/presence of the inhibitor Ac-DVED-CHO.