Ways of dying: multiple pathways to apoptosis

In order to eliminate cells that are redundant, damaged, or infected, metazoan organisms have evolved the cell suicide mechanism termed apoptosis (Kerr et al. 1972). This genetic program is vital for normal development, for maintenance of tissue homeostasis, and for an effective immune system. Not surprisingly therefore, its disturbance is implicated in numerous pathological conditions, ranging from degenerative disorders to autoimmunity and cancer (Cory and Adams 2002; Cory et al. 2003). The cell’s death throes are choreographed by a set of previously dormant proteases, the caspases, which cleave several hundred cellular substrates (Thornberry and Lazebnik 1998). Two principal pathways to caspase activation…

• LA
  Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• MR
  Medical Research Council
• NH
  National Health and Medical Research Council

  Award: 257502
• NC
  National Cancer Institute