文本框: THE ROLE OF CASPASE-3 IN APOPTOSIS MEDIATED BY THE INFECTION OF HUMAN CYTOMEGALOVIRUS Nie X.C., Fang F, Dong Y.S. Laboratory of Pediatric Clinical Virology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical School, Huazhong Science and Technology University, Wuhan, China Objective: Caspase-3 is one of the caspase family members. It is involved in both the initiation and execution phases of apoptosis triggered by various physical and pathological stimuli. In this study, we examined the role of caspase-3 in the process of apoptosis attributed to the infection of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). Methods: Human embryonic lung (HEL) fibroblasts were infected with 100TCID50 of HCMV (strain AD169). The infected HEL cells, when typical cytopathic effects appeared in them, they were harvested and then taken the following tests: ① analysis for apoptisis by flow cytometery (FCM); ② the expressing level of caspase-3 in infected HEL cells was determined by Western blot assay. The normal cells were simutaneously cultivated and examined as the controls. Results: 33.2℅of infected cells showed apoptosis features in the histogram by FCM, whereas only 3.1℅ in the normal cells (p<0.001). Moreover, the results of western blotting showed that in the normal cells, there was only a linear band of 32KD protein, and in the infected cells there were a narrow band in 32KD size and a much wider band of 17KD protein which was the active part of caspase-3, showing a significantly high level of expression. Conclusions: Our data suggested that HCMV were able to induce the apoptisis of infected cells, which could be triggered by caspase-3. Key words: caspase-3 apoptosis human cytomegalovirus 0677