Apoptosis: It's No Laughing Martyr

Book Review apoptosis may play a role in the pathogenesis of AIDS. relation to the role of apoptosis in AIDS, to be refreshing when compared with other chapters in this and other books where " bald data " is presented and no real at-Apoptosis and the Immune Response. tempt is made to peer into the future and speculate Edited by Christopher D. Gregory. what the next piece and then the next piece of the jigsaw New York: Wiley–Liss. (1995). 432 pp. $89.95. puzzle might be. I think as scientists we need to do this a little more often. Perhaps the most pivotal chapter in the book is the There is no doubt that apoptosis is one of the hottest one dealing with signal transduction mechanisms, be-areas of research not only in immunology, but also in a cause this is the area in which all the key questions are number of other scientific fields. However, if it weren't for being asked at the moment. However, while the authors the questioning scientific endeavors of immunologists in made a valiant attempt to explain what is known about the latter part of the 1980s, the field of apoptosis could the signaling mechanism of apoptosis, I feel they left still be languishing in the shadows of scientific knowl-far too many gaps. This, however, is probably more a edge. From Andrew Wyllie's original paper in 1972 up reflection of the general state of the field than the literary until the early 1980s, little attention was paid to this now skills of the authors. A good schematic diagram rather obviously pivotal phenomenon. Sometime in the mid-than the numerous figures and tables with research to late 1980s, a number of investigators, particularly in data would have been particularly useful in a chapter the field of immunology, began to question whether a of this sort. process such as apoptosis had a role to play in the The final two chapters in this 12 chapter volume deal immune system. Papers that spring immediately to mind with the recognition and removal of apoptotic cells and are those from the laboratories of John Cohen, Gwyn apoptosis in the hemopoietic system. The former of Williams, and Stanley Korsmeyer. The work of Cohen's these two deals with the mechanism by which apoptotic group, demonstrating that the withdrawal of growth fac-cells are removed. Under physiological conditions, tors led to apoptosis in T cells and that …