Apoptosis

Apoptosis [from a Greek word meaning "falling off"] is simply defined as "programmed cell death" in which cells that are no longer needed, perish, by activating an intracellular cell death program. Apoptosis is a natural phenomenon and each day, billions of cells in the human body are known to die through this process.

All cells in a human body originate from the fertilized egg. During embryonic and fetal periods, the number of cells increases exponentially. They mature and specialize to form various tissues and organs of the body. In parallel to this generation, cells also start dying to maintain an appropriate, healthy number in the tissues. While it seems like a waste of cellular machinery to produce all these cells only to kill them ultimately, apoptosis is a very critical function that maintains a delicate balance, which when skewed, could lead to disastrous results, potentially even jeopardizing the survival of an organism. Excessive apoptosis results in atrophy whereas insufficient apoptosis causes uncontrolled cell proliferation resulting in cancers.

The Discovery of Apoptosis

The mystery of Apoptosis has baffled scientists for years. Three scientists that dedicated their lives to this field of research include Sydney Brenner, Robert Horvitz and John Sulston. All three worked in different labs but the one thing common to all of them was the model organism that they worked with - the non-parasitic, transparent nematode – Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans).

The fertilized egg undergoes a series of cell divisions leading to differentiation and specialization. In C. elegans, all cell divisions and differentiations were identical between individual to individual. This feature made it possible to construct a lineage for all cell divisions. Through such mapping, the scientists found that 1090 cells were generated during development out of which precisely 131 cells were eliminated by the process of cell death, resulting in an adult nematode with 959 somatic cells. Through their combined efforts, these scientists demonstrated the genetic regulation of organ development and cell death.

What Causes Apoptosis

Scientists in recent years have unraveled the molecular mechanisms and pathways underlying this phenomenon. Apoptosis is known to be mediated by an intracellular proteolytic cascade, orchestrated by proteolytic enzymes called caspases. In the best studied pathway, it was found that apoptotic proteins in mitochondria, belonging to the Bcl-2 family, are induced thereby causing a mitochondria to release its contents, ultimately leading to the events of a caspase cascade. In contrast to necrosis, which is an explosive and damaging inflammatory response, apoptosis is a some what implosive process whereby a cell shrinks and condenses, its cytoskeleton collapses, and the nuclear envelope disassembles thereby subjecting chromosomal DNA to fragmentation. The altered cell surface causes a dying cell to be phagocytosed [eaten away] rapidly by a specialized, scavenging cell called the macrophage.

Read the official press release from the Nobel Prize Committee

Despite the numerous advancements in the field of apoptosis research, GenScript realizes that a lot more still needs to be done and it is committed to providing high quality products and services that will accelerate future discoveries. Studies of proteins involved in other critical pathways are made easier by our products and Gene, Peptide, Protein, Antibody, Cell Line and apoptosis assay services as part of our Discovery Services.

Recent Publications on Apoptosis That Cite GenScript

The Apoptosis Repressor With a CARD Domain (ARC) is A Direct HIF1 Target Gene And Promotes Survival And Proliferation of VHL Deficient Renal Cancer Cells. Razorenova et al. Mol Cell Biol. 2013 Dec

Lats2 Phosphorylates p21/CDKN1A After UV Irradiation And Regulates Apoptosis. Suzuki et al. J Cell Sci. 2013 Oct;126(Pt 19);4358-4368

Prohibitin (PHB) Inhibits Apoptosis In Rat Granulosa Cells (GCs) Through The Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) And The Bcl Family of Proteins. Chowdhury et al. Apoptosis. 2013 Oct.

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