APOPTOSIS: BASIC CONCEPTS, MECHANISMS AND CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
AbstractApoptosis, a well choreographed gene-directed cellular destruction, plays an important role in a variety of biological events, including morphogenesis, homeostatic maintenance of various tissues and removal of harmful cells while dysregulated apoptosis has been implicated in a variety of disease such as cancer, systemic and organ specific autoimmune disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Apoptosis is initiated by extracellular or intracellular signals in which complex machinery is activated to start a cascade of events ultimately leading to the degradation of nuclear DNA and dismantling of the cell. Cellular disruption results from the activation of a family of cysteine proteases known as caspases. Caspases are synthesized as inactive proenzymes, which upon activation cleave various substrates in the cytoplasm or nucleus leading to changes in morphological and cell death. The goal of this review is to provide a general overview of basic knowledge on the process of apoptosis including morphology, characterization, assays, anti apoptotic genes, mechanisms and relevance to diseases.
Article Information
1
940-950
572KB
2756
English
Ijpsr
Bibhas Kar and S. Sivamani
Centre for Genetic Studies & Research, The Madras Medical Mission, Chennai-600037,TN, India.
drbibhas_kar@yahoo.co.in
04 July, 2014
01 October, 2014
16 November, 2014
http://dx.doi.org/10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.6(3).940-50
01 March, 2015
Download