Abstract
Ferulic acid plays a chemopreventive role in cancer by inducing tumor cells apoptosis. As mitochondria play a key role in the induction of apoptosis in many cells types, here we investigate the mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) and the release of cytochrome c induced by ferulic acid and its esters in rat testes mitochondria, in TM-3 and MLTC-1 cells. While ferulic acid, but not its esters, induced MPT and cytochrome c release in rat testes isolated mitochondria, in TM-3 cells we found that both ferulic acid and its esters induced cytochrome c release from mitochondria in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting a potential target of these compounds in the induction of cell apoptosis. The apoptosis induced by ferulic acid is therefore associated with the mitochondrial pathway involving cytochrome c release and caspase-3 activation.
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Cione and Tucci have equally contributed to this article.
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Cione, E., Tucci, P., Senatore, V. et al. Synthesized esters of ferulic acid induce release of cytochrome c from rat testes mitochondria. J Bioenerg Biomembr 40, 19–26 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10863-007-9097-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10863-007-9097-7