RECOMBINANT BCL-XL ATTENUATES VASCULAR HYPERPERMEABILITY IN A RAT MODEL OF HEMORRHAGIC SHOCK.

Following hemorrhagic shock (HS), vascular hyperpermeability . the leakage of fluid, nutrients and proteins into the extravascular space occurs primarily due to the disruption of the endothelial cell-cell adherens junctional complex. Studies from our laboratory demonstrate that activation of the mitochondria mediated 'intrinsic' apoptotic signaling cascade has a significant role in modulating HS-induced hyperpermeability.

The dual functions of receptor interacting protein 1 in fas-induced hepatocyte death during sepsis.

In examining the liver's response to sepsis, our laboratory has found that septic hepatocytes exhibit a higher degree of necrosis when compared with septic thymocytes, which typically die through the canonical apoptotic pathway. Recently, an adaptor protein associated with the Fas/TNF death receptor pathway, receptor interacting protein 1 (RIP1), has been shown to be critical for determining whether a cell's death is apoptotic or necrotic. We propose to test the central hypothesis that RIP1 activation by death receptor (Fas) during sepsis determines whether the hepatocytes' fate is apoptotic versus necrotic.