Caspase protocols in mice.

Members of the caspase family of proteases are evolutionarily conserved cysteine proteases that play a crucial role as the central executioners of the apoptotic pathway. Since the discovery of caspases, many methods have been developed to detect their activation and are widely used in basic and clinical studies. In a mouse tissue, caspase activation can be monitored by cleavage of caspase-specific synthetic substrates and by detecting cleaved caspase by western blot analysis of the tissue extract. In tissue sections, active caspase can be detected by immunostaining using specific antibodies to the active caspase. In addition, among the myriads of caspase-specific substrates known so far, cleaved fragments produced by caspases from the substrates such as PARP, lamin A, and cytokeratin-18 can be monitored in tissue sections by immunostaining as well as western blots of tissue extracts. In general, more than one method should be used to ascertain detection of activation of caspases in a mouse tissue.