Insight
Nature 407, 770-776 (12 October 2000) | doi:10.1038/35037710
The biochemistry of apoptosis
Michael O. Hengartner
Top of page
Abstract
Apoptosis — the regulated destruction of a cell — is a complicated process. The decision to die cannot be taken lightly, and the activity of many genes influence a cell's likelihood of activating its self-destruction programme. Once the decision is taken, proper execution of the apoptotic programme requires the coordinated activation and execution of multiple subprogrammes. Here I review the basic components of the death machinery, describe how they interact to regulate apoptosis in a coordinated manner, and discuss the main pathways that are used to activate cell death.
