To elucidate the relationship between activation of neutrophils and their subsequent death, the effect of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), a potent activator of neutrophils, was examined. PMA-treated neutrophils showed morphological changes quite different from those of typical apoptosis or necrosis. After fusion of the lobate nucleus, nuclear contents of chromatin uniformly decreased in compactness and soon after the nuclear envelope was broken. Even at this stage, cytoplasmic organelles did not undergo degeneration. Membrane permeability began increasing at 3 h of incubation with PMA, subsequent to nuclear change. Conventional agarose gel electrophoresis and pulsed field gel electrophoresis of DNA from PMA-treated neutrophils revealed no DNA degradation products smaller than 300 kbp. PKC inhibitors, staurosporine and H-7, prevented cytotoxicity by PMA. Furthermore, antioxidants, thiourea, dimethylthiourea, pyrrolidinethiocarbamate, and N-acetyl-L-cysteine, but not superoxide dismutase, were also active in preventing PMA cytotoxicity, suggesting that cell suicide resulting from PMA treatment is due to oxygen radicals, especially the hydroxyl radical. A certain population of neutrophils phagocytosing opsonized zymosan also showed changes similar to those observed in PMA-treated cells.

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We demonstrate here that human necrosis factor-alpha, a potent neutrophil activator, induces rapid (within 3 h) apoptosis of these cells, i.e. neutrophils treated with this cytokine exhibit (i) light and electron microscopic changes characteristic to apoptotic cells, (ii) reduced propidium iodide binding to DNA, and (iii) the ladder form of DNA, as shown by agarose gel electrophoresis. These results suggest that apoptosis acceleration may be involved in processes by which neutrophils are prevented from damaging tissues.

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To elucidate the biological significance of activating mutations of BRAF in human malignant tumors, we performed a mutation analysis using 43 cell lines established from tumors that had developed in several kinds of human organs. Because the same V599E point mutation was observed in three of six melanoma cell lines and no such mutations were observed in other types of cancers, we focused further on melanoma, performed mutation analyses of NRAS, KRAS, CTNNB1, and p16/p14(ARF) in these cell lines, and found one NRAS mutation and three p16/p14(ARF) mutations. We further searched for mutations of BRAF and NRAS in 35 primary sporadic melanomas from 35 Japanese patients and detected the V599E BRAF point mutation in only nine (26%) of them. Significant differences in mutation frequency were observed among four histological subtypes; four (50%) of eight superficially spreading melanoma and five (33%) of 15 acral lentiginous melanoma had the mutation, whereas none of 12 other types (six nodular melanoma, five lentigo melanoma, and one mucosal melanoma) had it. The BRAF mutation was observed frequently even in small lesions, indicating that activation of this gene may be one of the early events in the pathogenesis of some melanomas.

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