Bcl-2 localized at the nuclear compartment induces apoptosis after transient overexpression.

Bcl-2 is the best characterized member of a large family of proteins that regulate apoptosis. Although it is established that Bcl-2 localized at the mitochondria functions as an anti-apoptotic protein, the function of Bcl-2 at the nucleus remains unclear. Recently we showed that nuclear compartment-associated Bcl-2 inhibits transcription factor activation.

Rapid assay for quantitative measurement of apoptosis in cultured cells and brain tissue.

Analysis of apoptosis in brain tissue following ischemia, hypoxia, or oxidative stress has technical limitations. The use of counting cells displaying apoptotic morphology is time intensive, vulnerable to sampling errors, and suffers from low numbers of total recorded events. Other cell death assays such as agarose gel analysis of DNA fragmentation, TUNEL, or ELISA are time intensive, limited to a single endpoint measure, and can be technically difficult to perform or reproduce.