caspase-1 (A19) Antibody from MyBioSource.com

Caspases is a family of mammalian proteases that regulate many of the morphological and biochemical features of apoptosis. The currently identified caspases can be divided into three groups: apoptotic initiators. apoptotic executioners. and inflammatory mediators (1.2). Caspase-2. 8. and 9 have been identified as apoptotic initiators (3.4). Caspase-2 (also designated Nedd-2/ICH-1) can be alternatively spliced to produce two distinct Caspase-2 mRNA species. One mRNA species encodes a protein of 435 amino acids in length and the mRNA splice variant encodes a 312 amino acid protein. The larger protein. Caspase-2L. in an over expressed state. leads to programmed cell death. Conversely the over expression of Caspase-2S protein. a truncated version of Caspase-2L. has been shown to suppress cell death induced by serum deprivation (5). The executioner caspases include caspase-3. 6 and 7. Of these three proteases Caspase-3 is considered to be the essential for the chromatin margination. DNA fragmentation. and nuclear collapse during apoptosis (6). Caspase-1 (also known as ICE) is considered to be a mediator of the inflammatory response by converting the inactive precursor of interleukin-1b to the 17 kDa proinflammatory cytokine. IL-1b (7.8).