ATP/BzATP-induced nuclear condensation mediated by the P2XR is dependent on caspase-3 activation

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "P2X nucleotide receptors mediate caspase-8/9/3-dependent apoptosis in rat primary cortical neurons"</p><p></p><p>Purinergic Signalling 2005;1(4):337-347.</p><p>Published online Jan 2005</p><p>PMCID:PMC2096553.</p><p></p> (A) Rat PCNs were cultured for 7–10 days, incubated in serum-free HGGMEM for 6 h and stimulated with BzATP (300 µM) or ATP (100 µM) for 16 h or with HO (1 µM) for 2 h. When indicated, 500 mM oATP was added 2 h prior to addition of BzATP. Cells cultured in B27-AO Neurobasal medium () or in serumfree HGGMEM (−) overnight were used as controls. Then, nuclear condensation was determined by DAPI staining and detected by fluorescence microscopy, as described in the Materials and methods. (B) Cells were treated as in (A) except that the data were expressed as a percentage of cells that exhibited DAPI stained nuclei. Data are the means ± S.E.M. of results from at least four experiments, where * < 0.05, and *** < 0.001 indicate significant differences from the serum-starved control (−), and where < 0.001 indicates a significant difference from BzATP treatment. (C) rPCNs were treated as in (A) except that 10 µM ZDEVD-FMK, a caspase-3 inhibitor, was added for 1 h prior to BzATP, when indicated