What is a caspase?

        A caspase is a cysteine protease mediator of apoptosis.  It cleaves substrates at Asp residues.  The most active caspase is Caspase-3, which is nearle solely responsible for proteolytic cleavage of many key proteins.


As apoptosis occurs, cytochrome C is released from the mitochondria.  This processes Procaspase-9, which leads to the cascading activation of Cleaved Caspases 3 and 7, PARP (poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase), and Cleaved PARP.  Any one of these can be probed for via a Western Blot.