The role of the apoptosis and the genes regulating apoptosis in the early differentiation of human embryo

Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is an important process participating in the formation of organs and tissues during embryogenesis. Our aim of the work is studying the role of the apoptosis during the human embryonic differentiation. We tend to give acquired findings into the correlation with expression of proteins Bcl-2 and Bax (products of genes regulating apoptosis). Detection of the apoptosis was carried out on 25 routinely processed human embryos by means of TUNEL technique. The level of expression of Bcl-2 and Bax was determined using standard three-step immunohistochemical procedure. Results were achieved by the comparison of apoptoic index and the level expression of Bcl-2 and Bax was semiquantitatively evaluated. The low value of apoptotic index was mostly accompanied by the high expression of Bcl-2 and the Bax expression was not proportionally related to the value of apoptic index.