The assumption by everyone has been that what they're measuring is
apoptosis. What they in fact measure is cell viability by Trypan Blue
exclusion. No TUNEL staining, DNA laddering, or caspase activation. The
WT cells shown in Fig 2C don't look particularly apoptotic. Thus it could
be apoptosis, necrosis, or anything on the spectrum in between.
The notion that "apoptosis is something to be prevented in order to prolong
lifespan" is certainly not proven by this paper. What they have neatly
shown is that prevention of cell death and prolonged lifespan are linked,
which isn't exactly a great leap of faith for anyone.
By the way .... do MEF's have many mitochondria?
PSB
_________________________________________
Dr. Paul S. Brookes. (brookes at uab.edu)
UAB Department of Pathology, G004 Volker Hall
1670 University Blvd., Birmingham AL 35294 USA
Tel (001) 205 934 1915 Fax (001) 205 934 1775
http://peir.path.uab.edu/brookes
The quality of e-mails can go down as well as up
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