Serum-Deprivation Induces Cell Death of Rat Cultured Microglia Accompanied With Expression of Bax Protein

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Expression of Bcl−2 related proteins in rat microglial primary culture was examined.At relative low cell densities, serum deprivation caused cell death and nuclei condensation of cultured microglia.Expression of a pro−apoptotic protein, Bax, but not Bcl−2, was increased by the serum deprivation.SB203580, a specific inhibitor of p38^MAPK, prevented both the serum deprivation−induced Bax expression and microglial death.Immunochemical staining showed that microglia expressing a high level of Bax were subjected to apoptosis−like cell death.These observations suggest that Bax expression underlies the apoptosis of cultured microglia after serum deprivation.