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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Identification of Intracellular Signaling Events Induced in Viable Cells by Interaction with Neighboring Cells Undergoing Apoptotic Cell Death
Published on: December 27, 2016
GSK3beta mediates the induced expression of synaptic acetylcholinesterase during apoptosis
Peng Jing1, Qihuang Jin, Jun Wu
1Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
Abstract:
Besides its role in terminating acetylcholine-mediated neurotransmission, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is found to be expressed and participate in the process of apoptosis in various cell types. However, the mechanisms underlying AChE up-regulation in neuronal cells remain elusive. Herein we demonstrated that glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK3beta) mediates induced AChE-S expression during apoptosis. In this study, A23187 and thapsigargin (TG) were employed to induce apoptosis in neuroendocrine PC12 cells. The results showed that exposure of PC12 cells to A23187 and TG up-regulated AChE activity significantly. The same treatment also led to activation of GSK3beta. Two different inhibitors of GSK3beta (lithium and GSK3beta-specific inhibitor VIII) could block A23187- or TG-induced up-regulation of AChE activity, AChE-S mRNA level and protein expression. However, lithium could not inhibit the induction of AChE-R mRNA and protein under similar conditions. Taken together, our results show that GSK3beta is specifically involved in the induction of AChE-S expression in PC12 cells during apoptosis.
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