title: Molecular steps of death receptor and mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis.
abstract: In almost all multicellular organisms, cell suicide or apoptosis appears to play an important role in the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Apoptosis is tightly regulated by a set of genes that either promote apoptosis or promote cell survival. Although a number of stimuli appear to trigger the process of apoptosis, there are two major signaling pathways of apoptosis; the death receptor pathway and the death receptor-independent or mitochondrial pathway. There is evidence to suggest that, under certain conditions and in some cell types; these two pathways may cross talk. During the past 5 years, rapid progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of apoptosis. In this brief review, I will summarize the various molecular steps of apoptosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine Medical Sciences, University of California, Irvine 92697, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology*; D020239:Receptor Cross-Talk; D018124:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor / Q000235:genetics*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D019014:fas Receptor / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D018124:Receptors, Tumor Necrosis Factor; D019014:fas Receptor