“…We found that this compound induces apoptosis in rat glioma C6 cells and human monoblastic leukemia U937 cells (Yasugi et al ., 1995;Dohi et al ., 1996;Fujimoto et al ., 2000). In Dol-P treated U937 cells, increase of plasma membrane fluidity (5-20 min) (Fujimoto et al ., 1999), reduction in ∆ψ m (1 hr) and translocation of apoptosis-inducing factor (3 hr) , increase of caspase-3-like protease activity (2-4 hr) (Yokoyama et al ., 1997;Yasugi et al ., 1998), chromatin condensation and DNA ladder formation (3-4 hr) were observed successively (Yasugi et al ., 1995). From the effects of specific inhibitors of caspases, we speculate at least two redundant parallel pathways may lead to chromatin processing during Dol-Pinduced apoptosis.…”