Apoptosis in a tissue-like culture model of human colorectal adenoma cells.

Tissue-like cultures of LT97 human colonic adenoma cells were produced by plating on reconstructed connective tissue supports (CTR) containing colon-associated fibroblasts to form mucosal monolayers and polyp-like structures closely resembling the in vivo situation. Tight cell-cell contacts and a high density of desmosomes were observed in 93.8+/-3.

Transferrin ensures survival of ovarian carcinoma cells when apoptosis is induced by TNFalpha, FasL, TRAIL, or Myc.

The activation of Myc induces apoptosis of human ovarian adenocarcinoma N.1 cells when serum factors are limited. However, the downstream mechanism that is triggered by Myc is unknown.

Maintenance of ATP favours apoptosis over necrosis triggered by benzamide riboside.

A new synthetic drug, benzamide riboside (BR) exhibited strong oncolytic activity against leukemic cells in the 5-10 microM range. Higher BR-concentrations (20 microM) predominantly induced necrosis which correlated with DNA strand breaks and subsequent depletion of ATP- and dATP levels. Replenishment of the ATP pool by addition of adenosine prevented necrosis and favoured apoptosis.

Inverse hierarchy of vimentin epitope expression in primary cultures of chicken and rat astrocytes: a double-immunofluorescence study.

Vimentin contributes to the cytoskeleton of different cell-types, among them glial cells. We report here that different forms of this protein, distinguishable by the monoclonal antibodies Vim3B4 and V9, are species-specifically expressed in cultures of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive, primary astrocytes of the chicken and rat. Most cells in the cultures co-expressed GFAP and one of the two vimentin epitopes.