Taxol and epirubicin induce processing of caspase-3 and caspase-8 in different B-lymphoid cell lines and in primary B-lineage ALL cells.

BJAB cells (A) were cultured in control medium (Co), 0.1 μg/mL Taxol (T), or 1 μg/mL epirubicin (E) for different time intervals as indicated. NALM-6 (B), REH (C), and primary B-ALL cells (D) were treated with control medium (Co), 0.1 μg/mL Taxol (T), or 1 μg/mL epirubicin (E) for 48 hours. Western blot analyses were performed as described in “Materials and methods” with antihuman caspase-3 and antihuman caspase-8 antibodies. Positions of molecular mass markers are indicated at the left. Arrows indicate the positions of procaspase-3 (*), the 17-kd active subunit of caspase-3 (**), procaspase-8 (#), and the 18-kd active subunit of caspase-8 (##). Experiments were repeated twice and yielded similar results.