Possible signaling mechanism involved during Al toxicity in human neuroblastoma cells.

<p>Al induces oxidative stress which perturbs the endoplasmic reticulum resulting into the release of calcium and ER stress related proteins like CHOP and Caspase 12. The altered cellular calcium levels disturb mitochondrial membrane permeability and induce cytochrome c release which activates caspase cascade. ER specific caspase 12 is also implicated in the activation of apoptosis through direct activation of caspase 3 or by caspase 9. Besides this, CHOP also disturbs the ratio of Bax/Bcl₂. ER stress may be implicated in the inactivation of p53 in response to Al(mal)₃ toxicity or other unknown possible mechanism may be responsible for suppressing transcript levels of p53.