• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
• /
• v.53 no.2
• /
• pp.158-164
• /
• 2021

Hypertriglyceridemia is the main risk factor for atherosclerosis. It is reported that triglyceride (TG) induces macrophage cell death, and is involved in the formation of plaques and development of atherosclerosis. We previously reported that TG-induced cell death of macrophages is mediated via pannexin-1 activation, which increases the extracellular ATP and subsequent increase in potassium efflux, thereby activating the caspase-2/caspase-1/apoptotic caspases, including the caspase-8 pathway. Contrarily, some studies have reported that caspase-8 is an upstream molecule of caspase-1 and caspase-2 in several cellular processes. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate whether caspase-8 influences its upstream molecules in TG-stimulated macrophage cell death. We first confirmed that caspase-8 induces caspase-3 activation and poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage in TG-treated macrophages. Next, we determined that the inhibition of caspase-8 results in reduced caspase-1 and -2 activity, which are upstream molecules of caspase-8 in TG-induced cell death of macrophages. We also found that ATP treatment restores the caspase-8 inhibitor-induced caspase-2 activity, thereby implying that caspase-8 affects the upstream molecules responsible for increasing the extracellular ATP levels in TG-induced macrophage cell death. Taken together, these findings indicate that caspase-8 potentiates the TG-induced macrophage cell death by activating its upstream molecules.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.954-959
• /
• 2021

Apoptosis is an important mechanism that regulates cellular populations to maintain homeostasis, and the caspases, a family of cysteine proteases, are key mediators of the apoptosis pathway. Caspase-8 is an initiator caspase of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway, which is initiated by extracellular stimuli. Caspase-8 have two conserved domains, N-terminal tandem death effector domains (DED) and C-terminal two catalytic domain, which are important for this extrinsic apoptosis pathway. In extrinsic apoptosis pathway, death receptors which members of TNF superfamily are activated by binding of death receptor specific ligands from cell outside. After the activated death receptors recruit adaptor protein Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD), death domains (DD) of death receptor and FADD bind to each other and FADD combined with death receptor recruits procaspase-8, a precursor form of caspase-8. The DED of FADD and procaspase-8 bind to one another and FADD-bound procaspase-8 is activated by cleavage of the prodomain. This death receptor-FADD-caspase-8 complex called death inducing signaling complex (DISC). Cellular FLICE-inhibitory proteins (c-FLIPs) regulate caspase-8 activation by acting both anti- and pro-apoptotically, and caspase-8 activation initiates the activation of executioner caspases such as caspase-3. Finally activated executioner caspases complete the apoptosis by acting critically DNA degradation, nuclear condensation, plasma membrane blebbing, and the proteolysis of certain caspase substrates.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.25-38
• /
• 2014

Amyloid-${\beta}$-peptide ($A{\beta}$) is important in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Calpain ($Ca^{2+}$-dependent protease) and caspase-8 (the initiating caspase for the extrinsic, receptor-mediated apoptosis pathway) have been implicated in $AD/A{\beta}$ toxicity. We found that $A{\beta}$ promoted degradation of calpastatin (the specific endogenous calpain inhibitor); calpastatin degradation was prevented by inhibitors of either calpain or caspase-8. The results implied a cross-talk between the two proteases and suggested that one protease was responsible for the activity of the other one. In neuron-like differentiated PC12 cells, calpain promotes active caspase-8 formation from procaspase-8 via the $A{\beta}$ and CD95 pathways, along with degradation of the procaspase-8 processing inhibitor caspase-8 (FLICE)-like inhibitory protein, short isoform (FLIPS). Inhibition of calpain (by pharmacological inhibitors and by overexpression of calpastatin) prevents the cleavage of procaspase-8 to mature, active caspase-8, and inhibits FLIPS degradation in the $A{\beta}$-treated and CD95-triggered cells. Increased cellular Ca2+ per se results in calpain activation but does not lead to caspase-8 activation or FLIPS degradation. The results suggest that procaspase-8 and FLIPS association with cell membrane receptor complexes is required for calpain-induced caspase-8 activation. The results presented here add to the understanding of the roles of calpain, caspase- 8, and CD95 pathway in $AD/A{\beta}$ toxicity. Calpain-promoted activation of caspase-8 may have implications for other types of CD95-induced cell damage, and for nonapoptotic functions of caspase-8. Inhibition of calpain may be useful for modulating certain caspase-8-dependent processes.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.38 no.4
• /
• pp.349-355
• /
• 2015

EphA7 has been implicated in the regulation of apoptotic cell death in neural epithelial cells. In this report, we provide evidence that EphA7 interacts with caspase-8 to induce apoptotic cell signaling. First, a pull-down assay using biotinylated ephrinA5-Fc showed that EphA7 co-precipitated with wild type caspase-8 or catalytically inactive caspase-8 mutant. Second, co-transfection of EphA7 with caspase-8 significantly increased the number of cleaved caspase-3 positive apoptotic cells under an experimental condition where transfection of EphA7 or caspase-8 alone did not affect cell viability or apoptosis. EphA4 also had a causative role in inducing apoptotic cell death with caspase-8, whereas EphA8 did not. Third, caspase-8 catalytic activity was essential for the apoptotic signaling cascade, whereas tyrosine kinase activity of the EphA4 receptor was not. Interestingly, we found that kinase-inactive EphA4 was well co-localized at the plasma membrane with catalytically inactive caspase-8, suggesting that an interaction between these mutant proteins was more stable. Finally, we observed that the extracellular region of the EphA7 receptor was critical for interacting with caspase-8, whereas the cytoplasmic region of EphA7 was not. Therefore, we propose that Eph receptors physically associate with a transmembrane protein to form an apoptotic signaling complex and that this unidentified receptor-like protein acts as a biochemical linker between the Eph receptor and caspase-8.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.32 no.8
• /
• pp.1034-1040
• /
• 2022

Fas-associated death domain (FADD) is an adapter molecule that bridges the interaction between receptor-interacting protein 1 (RIP1) and aspartate-specific cysteine protease-8 (caspase-8). As the primary mediator of apoptotic cell death, caspase-8 has two N-terminal death-effector domains (DEDs) and it interacts with other proteins in the DED subfamily through several conserved residues. In the tumor necrosis receptor-1 (TNFR-1)-dependent signaling pathway, apoptosis is triggered by the caspase-8/FADD complex by stimulating receptor internalization. However, the molecular mechanism of complex formation by the DED proteins remains poorly understood. Here, we found that direct DED-DED interaction between FADD and caspase-8 and the structure-based mutations (Y8D/I128A, E12A/I128A, E12R/I128A, K39A/I128A, K39D/I128A, F122A/I128A, and L123A/I128A) of caspase-8 disrupted formation of the stable DED complex with FADD. Moreover, the monomeric crystal structure of the caspase-8 DEDs (F122A/I128A) was solved at 1.7 Å. This study will provide new insight into the interaction mechanism and structural characteristics between FADD and caspase-8 DED subfamily proteins.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.56 no.3
• /
• pp.166-171
• /
• 2023

Monocytes are peripheral leukocytes that function in innate immunity. Excessive triglyceride (TG) accumulation causes monocyte death and thus can compromise innate immunity. However, the mechanisms by which TG mediates monocyte death remain unclear to date. Thus, this study aimed to elucidate the mechanisms by which TG induces monocyte death. Results showed that TG induced monocyte death by activating caspase-3/7 and promoting poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage. In addition, TG induced DNA damage and activated the ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)/checkpoint kinase 2 and ATM-and Rad3-related (ATR)/checkpoint kinase 1 pathways, leading to the cell death. Furthermore, TG-induced DNA damage and monocyte death were mediated by caspase-2 and -8, and caspase-8 acted as an upstream molecule of caspase-2. Taken together, these results suggest that TG-induced monocyte death is mediated via the caspase-8/caspase-2/DNA damage/executioner caspase/PARP pathways.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.50 no.10
• /
• pp.510-515
• /
• 2017

Triglyceride (TG) accumulation causes macrophage cell death, which affects the development of atherosclerosis. Here, we examined whether caspase-2 is implicated in TG-induced macrophage cell death. We found that caspase-2 activity is increased in TG-treated THP-1 macrophages, and that inhibition of caspase-2 activity drastically inhibits TG-induced cell death. We previously reported that TG-induced macrophage cell death is triggered by caspase-1, and thus investigated the relationship between caspase-2 and caspase-1 in TG-induced macrophage cell death. Inhibition of caspase-2 activity decreased caspase-1 activity in TG-treated macrophages. However, caspase-1 inhibition did not affect caspase-2 activity, suggesting that caspase-2 is upstream of caspase-1. Furthermore, we found that TG induces activation of caspase-3, -7, -8, and -9, as well as cleavage of PARP. Inhibition of caspase-2 and -1 decreased TG-induced caspase-3, -7, -8, and -9 activation and PARP cleavage. Taken together, these results suggest that TG-induced macrophage cell death is mediated via the caspase-2/caspase-1/apoptotic caspases/PARP pathways.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.20 no.9
• /
• pp.1409-1414
• /
• 2010

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exercise on intrinsic and extrinsic apoptosis signaling pathways in skeletal muscle. ICR-type white male mice were divided into a control group (CON: n=10) and an exercise training group (EX: n=10) after a 1 week adaptation period. EX performed treadmill running at 16.4 m/min with a 4% incline, 40 min/day and 5 days/week for 8 weeks. Cervical dislocation was performed at 48 hours after the last bout of exercise, after which gastrocnemius skeletal muscles were immediately collected. The results of verifying the intrinsic apoptosis pathway showed that there were no significant differences in Bcl-2, Bax, or the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 proteins between EX and CON. On the other hand, the results of verifying the extrinsic apoptosis pathway showed that caspase-8 proteins were significantly lower in EX than in CON (p<0.05). Apoptosis suppressing protein HSP70 was higher in EX than in CON. In addition, caspase-3, which is the final factor for apoptosis, was not activated. These results indicate that apoptosis did not develop since caspase-3 is non-cleaved by the effects of caspase-8 and HSP70 extrinsic pathways rather than Bcl-2 and Bax intrinsic pathways among signal pathways for apoptosis.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.66-74
• /
• 2019

Hyperlipidemia is defined as conditions of the accumulation of lipids such as free fatty acids (FFA), triglyceride (TG), cholesterol and/or phospholipid in the bloodstream. Hyperlipidemia can cause lipid accumulation in non-adipose tissue, which is lipid-cytotoxic effects in many tissues and mediates cell dysfunction, inflammation or programmed cell death (PCD). TG is considered to be a major cause of atherosclerosis through inflammatory necrosis of vascular endothelial cells. Recently, TG have also been shown to exhibit lipid-cytotoxicity and induce PCD. Therefore, we investigated the effect of TG on the cytotoxic effect of various cell types. When exposed to TG, the cell viability of U937 monocytes and Jurkat T lymphocytes, as well as the cell viability of MCF-7, a non-immune cell, decreased in time- and dose-dependent manner. In U937 cells and Jurkat cells, caspase-9, an intrinsic apoptotic caspase, and caspase-8, an extrinsic apoptotic caspase, were increased by exposure to TG. However, in TG-treated MCF-7 cells, caspase-8 activity increased only without caspase-9 activity. In addition, the reduction of cell viability by TG was recovered when all three cell lines were treated with pan-caspase inhibitor. These results suggest that activation of apoptotic caspases by TG causes lipotoxic effect and decreases cell viability.

• Biomedical Science Letters
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.307-310
• /
• 2010

Apoptosis is an important significance in the pathogenesis of cancer. Caspase 3 and p53 have been identified as important members of the apoptosis related proteins. This study was performed to define roles of caspase 3 expression and its relationship with p53 expression in endometrial cancers by immunohistochemistry. Immunoreactivity for caspase 3 was found in 13 (65.0%) out of 20 endometrial hyperplasia cases and 8 (36.4%) out of 22 endometrial cancers. Seven (87.5%) of the 8 cases with a positive caspase 3 immunoreactivity showed a positive p53 expression in 22 endometrial cancers. There were no significant associations between caspase 3 and p53 expressions. These findings suggest that caspase 3 expression might be associated with carcinogenesis of endometrial cancers. Further studies are needed to define the relationship between caspase 3 and p53 and apoptosis for examining the mechanisms of tissue-specific apoptosis related protein.