Pathology Outlines

Stains
Caspase 3

Author: Nat Pernick, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 18 November 2015, last major update February 2012

Copyright: (c) 2003-2015, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: caspase 3[title]

Caspases topics: General, Caspase 7, Caspase 8, Caspase 9

Table of Contents

Definition / general | Uses by pathologists | Microscopic (histologic) images

Cite this page: Caspase 3. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/stainscaspase3.html. Accessed July 16th, 2017.

Definition / general

Final common pathway effector caspase that carries out apoptosis; its presence means that apoptosis has not only been initiated but also occurred
Interacts with upstream caspases 8 and 9 (Wikipedia)
Cleaves PARP and ICAD
Cleaved caspase 3 (CCP-3) is the large fragment (17/19 kDa) of activated caspase 3 resulting from cleavage adjacent to Asp175; may have prognostic value if present in >10% of tumor cells in some malignancies

Uses by pathologists

Immunohistochemical marker of apoptosis (J Histochem Cytochem 2002;50:449)

Microscopic (histologic) images

Images hosted on other servers:

Detection of cleaved caspase 3

Cleaved caspase 3 in granular cell tumors