title: Mitochondrial apoptotic pathways.
abstract: Apoptosis or programmed cell death (PCD) is a physiological process characteristic of pluricellular organisms leading to self-destruction of the cell. It is therefore involved in development, homeostasis and host defense. However, a significant difference has been shown between mammalian cell apoptosis and non-mammalian cell apoptosis: mitochondria are implicated only in the former. Execution of PCD includes the release of several proapoptotic proteins from the intermembrane space of mitochondria. They could exert their actions through a caspase dependent as well as a caspase independent way. On the other hand, regulation of PCD is mainly given by the Bcl-2 family members, which are in turn essentially regulated by activation of death receptors and/or DNA damage. Nowadays, execution of apoptosis is better known than its regulation. Nevertheless, we are still far of a complete understanding of the apoptotic process.
authors.affiliation: Radioisotopes Laboratory, School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mohamad
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gutiérrez
authors.forename: Mariel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Núñez
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cocca
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martín
authors.forename: Graciela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cricco
authors.forename: Vanina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bergoc
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000378:metabolism; D004249:DNA Damage; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D006801:Humans; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000378:metabolism; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009336:Necrosis; D010766:Phosphorylation; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D045304:Cytochromes c; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; C052391:endonuclease G; D020169:Caspases