Neural stem cell differentiation is dependent upon endogenous caspase‐3 activity

ABSTRACTCaspase proteases have become the focal point for the development and application of anti‐apoptotic therapies in a variety of central nervous system diseases. However, this approach is based on the premise that caspase function is limited to invoking cell death signals. Here, we show that caspase‐3 activity is elevated in nonapoptotic differentiating neuronal cell populations. Moreover, peptide inhibition of protease activity effectively inhibits the differentiation process in a cultured neurosphere model. These results implicate caspase‐3 activation as a conserved feature of neuronal differentiation and suggest that targeted inhibition of this protease in neural cell populations may have unintended consequences.