Characterization of Breast Cancer Cell Death Induced by Interferons and Retinoids

摘要

Apoptosis or programmed cell death (PCD) is a biological process used by metazoans to eliminate cells that are superfluous or potentially dangerous. PCD is vital to proper animal development as well as tissue homeostasis in adults. It has also been implicated as a mechanism for eliminating pathogen infected cells. Defective regulation of apoptosis has been implicated in various pathological conditions including cancer, autoimmune diseases 1, 2 stroke damage and neurodegenerative diseases 3-6. Loss of apoptosis may also result in drug resistance in tumor cells 7, 8. Apoptosis in mammals is influenced by a perplexing number of pathways induced by cytokines, survival factors, cell-cell and cell-ECM (extra-cellular matrix) interactions, oncogenes, DNA damage, and viral proteins 9-12.