Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

Editor

Personal info

View

About

Terms

Javascript disabled

Please enable Javascript support in your browser to use this application.

Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.

[edit this page]

Stefanelli, C. et al.

Stefanelli, Stanic, Bonavita, Flamigni, Pignatti, Guarnieri, Caldarera,

Inhibition of glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis with 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside, a cell-permeable activator of AMP-activated protein kinase.

The AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is related to a growing family of protein kinases that are believed to protect cells against environmental and nutritional stress. In the present study the hypothesis of a protective role for AMPK against thymocyte apoptosis has been tested. It is shown that AMPK is expressed in rat thymocytes that contain the transcript for the a1 isoform of the AMPK catalytic subunit and can be activated by treatment with 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR), a well-established activator of AMPK. AICAR is not toxic and prevents glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis in the same concentration range used to activate AMPK. At concentrations higher than 1 mM, AICAR fully restores cell viability and inhibits DNA laddering in dexamethasone-treated thymocytes. Furthermore, AICAR blocks the dexamethasone-induced activation of caspase 3-like enzymes, which are believed to play a pivotal role in apoptotic cell death. Activation of AMPK by oligomycin, which depletes thymocytes of ATP, is also correlated to inhibition of caspase 3-like activity in dexamethasone-treated cells. However, AICAR and oligomycin do not exert any protective action when apoptosis is induced by staurosporine. These results indicate that AICAR is a powerful inhibitor of glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis and suggest that AMPK activation may interfere with a step in the apoptotic cascade triggered by dexamethasone.[1]

References

Inhibition of glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis with 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside, a cell-permeable activator of AMP-activated protein kinase. Stefanelli, C., Stanic, I., Bonavita, F., Flamigni, F., Pignatti, C., Guarnieri, C., Caldarera, C.M. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (1998) [Pubmed]

Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenes Open Access Licence Privacy Policy Terms of Use apsburg

The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.