Hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis in human hepatoma cells is mediated byCD95(APO-1/Fas) receptor/ligand system and may involve activation of wild-type p53

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in cell death induced by many different stimuli. Direct exposure of human hepatoma cell line SMMC -7221 to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can induce apoptosis characterized by mor phological evidence and fragmentation of DNA assayed by terminal deoxynucle otidyl transferase assay (TUNEL assay). Analysis of flow cytometry indicate d that H2O2 can decrease the level of CD95(APO-1/Fas), and it is confirmed that H2O2 can also activate the differential expression of some specific ge ne such as p53 by means of RT-PCR technique, The results indicated that CD9 5 signal transduction system may be involved in the H2O2-induced apoptosis, and can regulate some specific genes associated with apoptosis in transcri ption and translation levels such as p53.