To provide a screening method for an apoptosis-suppressing substance or an
apoptosis-promoting substance, the application of which substances to
pharmaceuticals or diagnostic drugs are expected, also to provide an
apoptosis-suppressing substance or an apoptosis-promoting substance,
since Bcl-2 family having apoptosis-suppressing or -promoting activities
is deeply involved in many diseases.To attain the above object,
VDAC-liposomes, an indicator substance such as fluorescent-labeled
cytochrome c or isotope-labeled sucrose etc. capable of passing through
VDAC (voltage-dependent anion channel), and a subject substance are
incubated, and then concentration changes in the indicator substance,
inside and outside the VDAC-liposomes before and after the incubation,
are detected in order to estimate presence or absence of the
apoptosis-suppressing activity or -promoting activity of the subject
substance.