Apoptosis induced in human colorectal carcinoma by anti-Fas antibody.

Background: Apoptosis or programmed cell death has been shown to play an important role in the progression from polyps to carcinomas. Fas/APO-1 is a cell surface protein that can induce apoptosis in a variety of cell types upon specific antibody binding. In this study seven human colorectal carcinoma (HCRC) cell lines of varying differentiation were analyzed for cell surface Fas expression, Fas-mediated apoptosis, and correlation of apoptosis withbcl-2 expression.