background programmed cell death (apoptosis) is a physiological process needed to remove unwanted or damaged cells. it has been hypothesized that any failure of programmed cell death leads to the development of neoplasm. identifying new agents which induce apoptosis in tumor cells is of great significance in treatment of neo­plasms. numerous studies suggest that exposure of tumor cells to stati...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a basic biological phenomenon that plays an important role during development, preservation of tissue homeostasis, and elimination of damaged cells. Several nomenclature systems have been proposed to classify PCD. One widely accepted system describes three major morphologies of programmed cell death, and classifies PCD as type I, apoptosis; type II, autophagy; and...

Current Biology starts with the following categorical statement: " Compelling arguments eliminate the idea that death is generally programmed by genes for ageing " [1]. The end of the abstract is less categorical: " It is recognized that in exceptional circumstances the possibility exists for selection to favor limiting survival. In acknowledging that at least in theory, aging might occasionall...

Despite the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia, neonatal hypoxic ischemic (HI) brain injury remains a common cause of developmental disability. Development of rational adjuvant therapies to hypothermia requires understanding of the pathways of cell death and survival modulated by HI. The conceptualization of the apoptosis-necrosis "continuum" in neonatal brain injury predicts mechanistic i...

Studies of the development of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans established that programmed cell death involves specific genes and proteins and that those genes and proteins act within the cells that die. This finding revealed that cell death is a fundamental and active biological process, much like cell division and cell differentiation. The characterization of genes responsible for programm...

The hermaphrodite-specific neurons (HSNs) of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are generated embryonically in both hermaphrodites and males but undergo programmed cell death in males. The gene egl-1 encodes a BH3-containing cell death activator that is required for programmed cell death in C. elegans. Gain-of-function (gf) mutations in egl-1 cause the inappropriate programmed cell death of th...

Programmed cell death is of ultimate importance in embryonic development of animals. Now, programmed cell death has been shown to be an integral part of a multicellular developmental program in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.