Apoptosis is a process, in which cells
activate an intrinsic suicide mechanism that destroys themselves. The proteases
that mediate this execution are called caspases (cysteinyl-aspartic acid
proteases). Apoptosis has gained central importance in the study of many
biological processes, including neoplasia, neurodegenerative diseases, and
development. Cleaved caspase-3 detects endogenous levels of the large fragment
(17/19 kDa) of activated caspase-3 resulting from cleavage adjacent to (Asp175).
Activation of caspase-3 requires proteolytic processing of its inactive zymogen
into actived p17 and p12 subunits. Cleavage of caspase-3 requires aspartic acid
at the P1 position. This antibody does not cross-react with other cleaved
caspases.