Apoptosis: regulation and relevance to toxicology.
1. Apoptosis is a remarkably stereotyped morphological event across all tissues in response to a vast array of damaging agents. 2. Our very existence depends upon a willing exchange of old life for new: apoptotic cell death is our guardian and saviour from genetic damage. 3. There is a close link between cell proliferation and apoptosis: When a cell picks up the machinery to proliferate it also acquires an abort pathway--'better dead than wrong'. 4. A wide variety of highly conserved genes have been implicated in triggering apoptosis. 5. The release of DNA loops from the nuclear scaffold is a more crucial intracellular event than DNA 'laddering' in apoptotic cells. 6. The manipulation of apoptotic rates in many of the common diseases in man will be a major therapeutic strategy in the future.
Alison
M R
MR
Department of Histopathology, RPMS, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK.
Sarraf
C E
CE
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D014116:Toxicology / Q000639:trends*; D018406:Virus Physiological Phenomena
D004247:DNA