Triggering Apoptosis in Hematopoietic Cells with Cytotoxic Drugs
- 1Apoptosis and Cytotoxicity Laboratory, Mater Research, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland 4102, Australia;
- 2Flow Cytometry and Imaging, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia;
- 3School of Medicine, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
Abstract
Cytotoxic agents are commonly added to cultured cells in the laboratory to investigate their efficacy, mechanism of action, and therapeutic potential. Most of these agents trigger cell death by apoptosis, which is also the most common form of cell death during development, aging, homeostasis, and eradication of disease. Treatment of cells with cytotoxic agents is therefore useful for investigating basic mechanisms of cell death in the human body. Actinomycin D, a cytotoxic agent isolated from Streptomyces, induces apoptosis in a variety of cell lines including the histiocytic lymphoma cell line U937. Treatment of U937 cells with actinomycin D provides an ideal model of drug-induced apoptosis that can also be used as a positive control for comparison with other treatments.
Footnotes
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↵4 Correspondence: nigel.waterhouse{at}qimrberghofer.edu.au
- © 2016 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
