Requirement of an Ice/Ced-3 Protease for Fas/Apo-1-Mediated Apoptosis

• THE Fas/APO-1 receptor is one of the major regulators of apoptosis(1-7). We report here that Fas/APO-1-mediated apoptosis requires the activation of a new class of cysteine proteases, including interleukin-1 beta-converting enzyme (ICE)(8-10) which are homologous to the product of the Caenorhabditis elegans cell-death gene ced-3 (refs 11, 12). Triggering of Fas/APO-1 rapidly stimulated the proteolytic activity of ICE. Overexpression of ICE, achieved by electroporation and microinjection, strongly potentiated Fas/APO-1-mediated cell death. In addition, inhibition of ICE activity by protease inhibitors, as well as by transient expression of the pox virus-derived serpin inhibitor CrmA or an antisense ICE construct, substantially suppressed Fas/APO-1-triggered cell death. We conclude that activation of ICE or an ICE-related protease is a critical event in Fas/APO-1-mediated cell death.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Cellbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Cell Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

cell-surface antigen

death gene ced-3

fas

induction

interleukin-1-beta converting enzyme

molecular-cloning

monoclonal-antibody

receptor

tumor-necrosis-factor

virus encodes

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)