Study describes role of Caspase-1 in infection of Chlamydia Trachomatis, use of FAM-YVAD-FMK cited

In the well-crafted study of inflammasome induction following cervical epithelial cell infection, Abdul-Sater et. al. (Inflammasome-Dependent Caspase-1 Activation in Cervical Epithelial Cells Stimulates Growth of the Intracellular Pathogen Chlamydia Trachomatis, J. Biol. Chem 284: 26789-26796, 2009) used ImmunoChemistry Technologies’ FLICA caspase-1 assay kit (catalog #98, FAM-YVAD-FMK) to quantify the percentage of cells containing active caspase-1 following C. Trachomatis infection of HeLa cells. The data show a significant level of caspase-1 activation within 24 hours post-infection evident in 50% of the cultured epithelial cells. The study goes further to illustrate the role of ROS production and K+ efflux in the activation of caspase-1. Specifically, infection by C. Trachomatis leads to a decrease in intracellular K+ levels that causes a rise in ROS production resulting in caspase-1 activation. Furthermore, the study illustrates how subsequent caspase-1 activation after C. Trachomatis infection enhances the infectivity of the pathogen.

Study Reveals Kinetics in Turnover of Young Rat Urothelium, Employing FAM-FLIVO™ for in vivo Apoptosis Detection

The recently published study by Erman et. al. (Apoptosis and Desquamation of Urothelial Cells in Tissue Remodeling During Rat Postnatal Development, J. Histochem. Cytochem. 57(8):721-730, 2009) used ImmunoChemistry Technologies’ FAM-FLIVO reagent (catalog #981) to observe the levels of apoptosis in urothelial cells of the young rat bladder. The study clearly demonstrates the kinetics in turnover of rat urothelium in the early postnatal period (birth to day 14) evidenced by apoptosis, autophagic cell death, and desquamation.