1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Analysis of cell death inducing gene in human malignant gliomas

Research Project

Project/Area Number	09470292
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Cerebral neurosurgery
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	YAMASHITA Junkoh Department of Neurosurgery Kanazawa University Chief Proffesor, 医学部, 教授 (90026948)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	TACHIBANA Osamu Department of Neurosurgery Kanazawa University Assistant Proffesor, 医学部, 助手 (40211362)
Project Period (FY)	1997 – 1998
Keywords	glioma / apoptosis, / Caspase-3
Research Abstract	Cysteine proteases of caspase family (interleukin-1 beta -converting enzyme) have been implicated as components of cell death pathway and have been reported to involved in Fas, chemotherapeutic agents, and radiation-induced apoptosis. In this study, I assessed the expression of Caspase-1, Caspase-2 and Caspase-3 in 11 cases of primary astrocytic tumors ( five anaplastic astrocytomas, and six glioblastomas) by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR, Western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry, and in situ casspase-3 activity assay. The frequency of Caspase-1, Caspase-2 and Caspase-3 overexpression appears to correlate with the malignancy grade of astrocytic brain tumors. Furthermore, Caspase-2 and Caspase-3 overexpression and Caspase-3 activation may play an important role in the pathogenesis of necrosis, which is one of the histological hallmarks of glioblastoma.

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