title: [Role of intracellular calcium in the programmed cell death of prostatic cancer cells].
abstract: The growth of any tissue depends on the quantitative relationship between the rate of cell proliferation and cell death. In normal adults tissues, this steady-state balance is regulated by a series of both systemic hormones and local growth factors. Programmed cell death, also called apoptosis, is one of the two pathways for cell death. In programmed cell death, specific intracellular signals induce the cell to undergo an active, energy-dependent process leading to a cascade of biochemical and morphologic events that result in the irreversible fragmentation of genomic DNA and then of the cell itself. Biochemical and morphological studies have demonstrated that the involution of the normal, hyperplastic and cancerous prostate after castration is the result of programmed cell death. Numerous group have studied the role of calcium in programmed cell death's triggering. In androgen-independent prostatic cell it had been proved that it was possible to trigger programmed cell death by inducing a sustained elevation of the intracellular calcium. Actually, some features tend to explain more precisely the exact role of calcium in apoptosis of prostatic cells.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physiologie Générale des Muscles, U.C.L. St-Luc, Brussels.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tombal
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gailly
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Van Cangh
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gillis
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D006133:Growth Substances / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000378:metabolism; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D006133:Growth Substances; D002118:Calcium