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Apoptosis Techniques and Protocols
Introduction to Cell Death
After many years of neglect, the study of normal cell death and the so-called programmed cell death has finally gained some needed momentum. Evidence obtained over the last five years indicates that programmed cell death (also referred to as apoptosis) occurs normally in most animal tissues at some well-defined stages of their development and/or maturation.
Mechanisms and Concepts
The molecular mechanisms by which it is executed remains unknown. However, key regulatory and metabolic steps have been identified in the apoptotic cascade and a central concept has progressively emerged: Apoptosis appears to occur by default in many different cell types unless suppressed by signals originating from neighboring cells. As Martin Raff noted a few years ago, this molecular cascade probably imposes a form of social control on cell survival and cell death.
Recent Advances
Since our understanding of the apoptosis phenomena has grown significantly over the last few years, we have been powered by recent technological advances to biochemically dissect the key metabolic components of apoptotic and necrotic cascades in normal and injured brains. Moreover, the development of improved histochemical tools has allowed us to better define the fundamental criteria of cell death, and transgenic technology has allowed scientists to test working hypotheses pertaining to the mechanism of action of the so-called “cell death gene.”
