Relationship between Caspase-3 and Apoptosis in Aseptic Necrosis of Femoral Head / 中国微创外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the expression and role of Caspase-3 during the development of non-traumatic avascular/aseptic necrosis of femoral head(ANFH).Methods Tissue samples were obtained from 22 femoral heads of 21 patients with ANFH.The samples were divided into three groups:early stage(6 cases),middle stage(8 cases) and late stage(8 cases) groups according to the progress of the disease.Meanwhile,19 tissue samples of 19 femoral heads were obtained from 19 cases of acute femoral neck fracture and set as a control group.The level of apoptosis of each group was compared in terms of the percentages of TUNEL positive osteocytes and empty osteocyte lacuna,and then the activity of Caspase-3 was detected by colorimetric method.Results Both the pecentages of empty osteocyte lacunae(F=45.43,P=0.000) and the TUNEL positive osteocytes(F=120.86,P=0.000) increased significantly with the progress of ANFH.The two indexes in the early and middle stage groups were significantly higher than those in the control(q=18.899,P0.05).Caspase-3 activity was not significantly related to the capacity of osteogenesis(r=0.126,P=0.425).Conclusions Caspase-3 is not the major executor of apoptosis in ANFH.It is very likely that it does not play a nonapoptotic role in the progress of the diseases.