Annexin V and DNA Fragmentation

Aki Hoji (akhst7+@pitt.edu)
Wed, 23 Oct 96 22:08:15 -0500

>From Chris Reutelingsperger's and David Hedley's comment, it appears that
surface exposure of PS takes place immediatedly after the commitment
stage, a point of no return, of apoptosis. My initial concern was that
PS expression might be reversible but after reading all the comments
posted, it does not appear to be the case. Or, am I wrong ?

Also, what is a biological significance of surface expression of PS.
Does it signal phagocytes (i.e. macrophage) to eat apoptotic cells ?

Fianlly, I have to agree with David Hedley's last comment. In fact, I
see Annexin V staining, and Tdt assay as tools to detect (not even
measure) apoptosis but apoptosis itself has a lot more interesting
aspects to it. And it was quite surprised to know that platelets did
show Annexin V binding when they undgergo apoptosis, as mentioned by
Vincent Shankey.

Aki Hoji (akhst7+@pitt.edu)
Dept. Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
University of Pittsburgh