title: Apoptosis during retinoic acid-induced differentiation of F9 embryonal carcinoma cells.
abstract: In this work we have characterized a process of cell death by apoptosis occurring in retinoic acid-induced differentiation of F9 embryonal carcinoma cells. Morphological changes corresponding to apoptosis were observed concomitantly with those of differentiated phenotype, in cell cultures treated for 48 h with physiological concentrations of all-trans-retinoic acid. Internucleosomal DNA fragmentation was also detected using agarose gels. These observations show that retinoic acid can induce both differentiation and apoptosis in an experimental system--the teratocarcinoma stem cell lines--widely used so far in the study of differentiation. We present this system as a tool for a better understanding of the role of retinoic acid in the regulation of cell differentiation and programmed cell death.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología Celular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad del País Vasco, Vizcaya, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Atencia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García-Sanz
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Unda
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aréchaga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D004249:DNA Damage; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D051379:Mice; D018243:Teratocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D014212:Tretinoin; D004247:DNA