Oxidative stress-induced apoptosis - an overview

摘要

Apoptosis is a form of regulated cell death that has attracted a lot of interest in the recent years. Exposure of various cell types to oxidative stress-causing agents can directly induce apoptosis which can be blocked by a wide range of antioxidants. It is now believed that oxidants may be essential biochemical intermediates in the progression of many forms of apoptosis induced by different stimuli. Oxidative stress-induced apoptosis is an outcome of alterations of various metabolic pathways resulting in the loss of ATP and calcium homeostasis, DNA damage, mitochondrial permeability transition, and structural as well as functional modification of certain proteins. This form of apoptosis also involves the interplay of certain genes such as Bcl-2,p53 and c-myc that may regulate the process either positively or negatively. In this review, an attempt has been made to elucidate, in brief, the role of these factors in oxidative stress-induced apoptosis. Caenorhabditis elegans is used as a model for the genetics of apoptotic cell death.