Effect of caspase-9 inhibitor on apoptosis in cartilage endplate chondrocytes in rat vertebrae / 中国实验动物学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the effect of caspase-9 inhibitor on low fetal bovine serum ( FBS)-induced apop-tosis in cartilage endplate chondrocytes in SD rat vertebrae.Methods Disc cartilage endplates were obtained from 3-month old SD rats and subjected to sequential digestion to harvest chondrocytes for primary culture, and apoptosis was in-duced by 1%FBS for 48 hours.Three groups of chondrocytes were treated by 1% FBS, caspase-9 inhibitor ( Z-LEHD-FMK) and DMSO, respectively.After 48 hours, apoptosis was detected by DAPI staining and flow cytometry.The expres-sion of procaspase-9, active caspase-9 and active caspase-3 was monitored by Western blot.Results Compared with the 1%FBS group (40.8 ±0.84)%and DMSO group (40.2 ±1.56)%, the apoptosis rate of the caspase-9 inhibitor group (26.3 ±2.56)% was significantly lower (P<0.05).The expressions of active caspase-9 and active caspase-3 in the caspase-9 inhibitor group were significantly lower than those in the other two groups (P<0.05).Conclusions Caspase-9 inhibitor can inhibit low FBS-induced apoptosis in cartilage endplate chondrocytes of rat vertebrae, and might become a new drug for the treatment of disc degeneration.