C urrently there is much interest and excitement in the understanding of how cells undergo the process of apoptosis or programmed cell death. Understanding how, why, and when cells are instructed to die may provide insight into the aging process, autoimmune syndromes, degenerative diseases, and malignant transformation. This review focuses on the development of apoptosis and describes the proce...

Programmed cell death is an integral component of C. elegans development. Genetic studies in C. elegans have led to the identification of more than two dozen genes that are important for the specification of which cells should live or die, the activation of the suicide program, and the dismantling and removal of dying cells. Molecular and biochemical studies have revealed the underlying conserv...

Programmed cell death is an integral component of C. elegans development. Genetic studies in C. elegans have led to the identification of more than two dozen genes that are important for the specification of which cells should live or die, the activation of the suicide program, and the dismantling and removal of dying cells. Molecular and biochemical studies have revealed the underlying conserv...

Programmed cell death (PCD) in bacteria plays an important role in developmental processes, such as lysis of the mother cell during sporulation of Bacillus subtilis and lysis of vegetative cells in fruiting body formation of Myxococcus xanthus. The signal transduction pathway leading to autolysis of the mother cell includes the terminal sporulation sigma factor Esigma(K), which induces the synt...

Apoptosis is a highly organized physiologic mechanism of destroying injured and abnormal cells as well as maintaining homeostasis in the multicellular organism. Apoptosis is tightly controlled at the genetic level and dysregulation of the apoptosis machinery may contribute to a variety of diseases. Pharmacologic manipulation of this pathway is a novel therapeutic target.

Erythrocytes are produced by a complex and finely regulated process of erythropoiesis. It starts with a pluripotential stem cell that, in addition of its self replication capacity, can give rise to separate cell lineages. Erythropoiesis passes from the stem cell through the multipotent progenitor CFU-GEMM (colony-forming unit granulocyte erythroid monocyte and megakaryocyte), and then BFU-E (bu...