Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Aug 17.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurosci. 2010 Feb 17;30(7):2623–2635. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5115-09.2010

Fig. 5. Synaptic activity does not exert protection downstream of caspase-9 activation.

Fig. 5

A) QRT-PCR analysis of Casp3 expression in neurons stimulated as indicated. *P<0.05 (n=3). B) The inducible caspase-9 system enables neurons to be killed by treatment with the dimerizer drug AP20187. Neurons were transfected with peGFP plus either control or icaspase-9 encoding vectors. At 24 h post-transfection pictures of neurons were taken prior to the treatment, where indicated, with AP20187 (100 pM), to cause dimerization/activation of icaspase-9. Cell death was assessed after a further 24 h. Where used, QVD-Oph was applied 1 h prior to AP20187.*P< 0.05 (n=4). Inset shows example pictures. C) Synaptic activity cannot protect against icaspase-9 induced apoptosis. Neurons were transfected as in Fig. 5b and immediately left either unstimulated or treated with BiC/4-AP to induce burst activity. At 24 h post-transfection pictures of cells were taken prior to treatment with the indicated concentrations of AP20187. Cell death was assessed after a further 24 h (n=4).