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Nature Cell Biology 9, 487–489 (1 May 2007) | doi:10.1038/ncb0507-487

Mitochondrial apoptosis without VDAC

Lorenzo Galluzzi & Guido Kroemer

The fate of cells succumbing to the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis is sealed by mitochondrial-membrane permeabilization (MMP), and this also applies to some cases of necrosis. MMP eventually culminates in the loss of barrier function in both mitochondrial membranes, thus leading to the dissipation of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential, the cessation of ATP production and the release of several cytotoxic proteins into the cytosol that normally reside in the mitochondrial intermembrane space.