CASP3 and LDOC-1 gene expression in a patient with carcinoma in hairy part of the head skin and Alzheimer disease

Down’s syndrome (DS), the most commonchromosomal disorder, is caused by 21 trisomy and isfeatured by intellectual disability. Subjects with DS candevelop some traits of Alzheimer disease (AD) at an earlierage than subjects without trisomy 21. Apoptosis is a programmedcell death process under both normal physiologicaland pathological conditions. Caspase-3 (CASP3)plays an important role in neuronal death during nervoussystem development and under certain pathological conditions.Furthermore, in vitro and in vivo studies reportelevated expression and activation of CASP3 in models ofAD. On this account, the expression of CASP3 gene wasevaluated in cultures of fibroblasts of DS and normalsubjects by flow cytometry. CASP3 protein was up-regulatedin fibroblasts of DS. The data obtained from this studystrengthen the hypothesis that the over-expression ofCASP3 gene could have a role in the activation of theapoptotic pathways acting in the neurodegenerative processesin DS.