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An Introduction to the Molecular Mechanisms of Apoptosis
Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Cancer et les Maladies du Sang (RCMS), Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg, L-1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Address for correspondence: Marc Diederich, Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Cancer et les Maladies du Sang (RCMS), Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg, 162A, avenue de la Faïencerie, L-1511 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Voice: +352 46 66 44 434; fax: +352 46 66 44 438. diederic{at}cu.lu Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1010: 1-8 (2003).
Apoptosis is a type of cell death that has been observed and studied for more than a century. The process of apoptosis was described as "programmed cell death" in 1964, and the term apoptosis, from a Greek word meaning "to fall away from" and describing the fall of dead leaves from trees in autumn, was only coined in 1972. During the last 30 years, this type of cell death has been extensively investigated and the molecular mechanisms underlying this cell suicide well characterized. Apoptosis is a physiological phenomenon necessary to tissue and body genesis and homeostasis, but defects in its regulation may cause numerous diseases, including cancer. Investigating the mechanisms of apoptosis is thus important to discover new cellular regulators that could be potential targets for new death-inducing drugs.
Key Words: apoptosis • caspases • death receptors • mitochondria This article has been cited by other articles:
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