To live or die--a cell's choice.
Cell death is one of several choices a cell faces in response to injury. The cell's inherent properties and its external environment determine which pathway is chosen. Interaction between transcription factors such as p53, E2F and c-Myc acts to finely tune the pathway selection process. Once the cell death pathway is initiated cell, survival proteins can stop it at different stages upstream of the activation of effector caspases. The exact point of no return along the cell death pathway is unknown, but is likely to vary between cells. It is unlikely to be a single step, but rather a short process leading to irreversibility of the pathway.
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Department of Pathology, University of Edinburgh, Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, U.K.
Harrison
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DJ
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D015398:Signal Transduction; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism
D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53