Abstract
UV irradiation is known to induces necrotic cell death in the acute phase, while the mechanisms of the cell death is not completely understood. On the other hand we have investigated the mechanisms of cell death caused by the membrane permeability increase. Here we compare these two types of cell death. As the experimental model, we used human corneal epithelial cells (HCEC) and applied UV irradiation or membrane-pore forming reagent, amphotericin B (amB). We observed the fluorescence increase in the nucleus by the UV irradiation in the presence of extracellular DAPI under the fluorescent microscope. For the amB experiments, we used propidium iodide for the fluorescent indicator. The fluorescence increase by the UV irradiation was suppressed by the anti-oxidant reagents. On the other hand, extracellular low Cl−- conditions, which blocked amB-induced cell death, did not suppress UV-induced cell death. From these results, we conclude that the mechanism of the UV-induced cell death is different form the amB-induced cell death. [J Physiol Sci. 2007;57 Suppl:S129]
