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The goals of this work were to establish a reproducible and effective model of apoptosis in a cell line derived from advanced prostate cancer and to study the role of the caspase family of proteases in mediating apoptosis in this system. The study involved the use of the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Apoptosis was induced using the hydroxymethyl glutaryl CoA reductase inhibitor, lovastatin, and was evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis of genomic DNA, morphological criteria, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling. Caspases were studied by catalytic activity, mRNA induction, and protein processing.

Lovastatin (30 µm) was an effective inducer of apoptosis, causing changes that were evident after 48 h and essentially complete after 96–120 h of treatment. These effects were prevented by the simultaneous addition of mevalonate (300 µM) to the culture medium. Lovastatin …