MEMPHIS, Tenn., Aug. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have demonstrated that a key event during apoptosis (cell suicide), occurs as a single quick event, rather than as a step-by-step process.
The researchers photographed individual cells undergoing that process, allowing them to observe the release of certain proteins from pores in the membranes of cellular structures called mitochondria.
However, one protein, apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF), escaped from the mitochondrial membrane much more slowly and incompletely, starting with the release of cytochrome c but continuing over the next few hours, according to Douglas Green, Ph.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Immunology. Green is the senior author of a report on this work that appears in the August 1 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The St. Jude researchers concluded that while AIF is known to regulate other cellular processes, the protein itself is not involved in triggering apoptosis.
The study also highlights the importance of the Bcl-2 family of proteins in regulating the formation of pores in the mitochondrial membrane, Green said. Other authors of the study include Cristina Munoz-Pinedo (Institute of Biomedical Investigations of Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain); Ana Guio-Carrion (Genomics Institute for the Novartis Research Foundation, San Diego, Calif.); Patrick Fitzgerald (St. Jude) and Donald Newmeyer (La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology).
This work was supported in part by National Institutes of Health, ALSAC and Secretaria de Estado de Universidades Investigacion and the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias of Spain.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. No family ever pays for treatments not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fund-raising organization. For more information, please visit www.stjude.org.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
CONTACT: Bonnie Kourvelas, St. Jude Public Relations, +1-901-495-4815,bonnie.kourvelas@stjude.org or Marc Kusinitz, Ph.D., ScientificCommunications +1-901-495-5020, marc.kusinitz@stjude.org, both of St. JudeChildren’s Research Hospital
Web site: http://www.stjude.org//