Fig. 9.

Time course of caspase-3-like protease activity in cytosolic protein extracts. Cultured rat hippocampal neurons were treated with staurosporine (300 nm) for the indicated periods of time. Caspase-3-like protease activity was measured by cleavage of the fluorogenic substrate Ac-DEVD-AMC (10 μm). Activities are represented as increase in AMC fluorescence [in arbitrary fluorescence units (Fl.U.)] over 120 min per microgram protein. Data are means ± SEM from n = 6 cultures. A duplicate experiment yielded similar results. Different from controls, *p < 0.05.