Getting the measure of apoptosis.

摘要

Programmed cell death (PCD), or more particularly the mode of PCD termed apoptosis, entered the research mainstream in the early 1990s when immunologists began to realize the enormous impact that this mode of cell death had on all aspects of immunity, from selection of T- and B-lymphocytes during development, homeostatic control of mature lymphocyte populations, to the elimination of infected cells by cytotoxic lymphocytes, as well as in other settings. What followed from the mid-to-late 1990s was akin to a Klondike goldrush of new discoveries in the field, with significant advances in our understanding of the molecular control of apoptosis being made on an almost monthly basis. The pace of truly major advances in the cell-death field has inevitably slowed in recent years but these new advances are just as exciting as their predecessors, especially as new ground becomes increasingly harder to find. The consequences of all of this effort has been the discovery of many of the major molecular participantsin the cell-death machinery, from simple metazoans to mammals, and a fairly good understanding of how these molecules collaborate to eliminate cells in a diversity of settings [1-3].