Accumulating evidence has shown that caspase, a family of cysteine proteases, is an essential component in apoptosis [1,2]. One of these cleaved caspases is present on activated caspase-3, which is a main effector caspase of apoptotic cascade [1,2]. The polyclonal rabbit anti-cleaved caspase-3 (CC-3) detects endogenous levels of the large (17/19 kd) activated caspase-3 resulting from cleaving adjacent to Asp 175. Involvement of caspase-3 in diabetes has been implicated: the frequency of beta-cell apoptosis was increased 10-fold in islet of lean humans and 3-fold in those of obese humans with type 2 diabetes mellitus compared with nondiabetic controls [3]. This study tested CC-3 immunostaining as a biological marker for pancreatic endocrine tumors (PETs).
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