Research on programmed cell death in plants is providing insight into the primordial mechanism of programmed cell death in all eukaryotes. Much of the attention in studies on animal programmed cell death has focused on determining the importance of signal proteases termed caspases. However, it has recently been shown that cell death can still occur even when the caspase cascade is blocked, reve...

Programmed cell death (PCD) of Dictyostelium discoideum cells was triggered precisely and studied quantitatively in an in vitro system involving differentiation without morphogenesis. In temporal succession after the triggering of differentiation, PCD included first an irreversible step leading to the inability to regrow at 8 hours. At 12 hours, massive vacuolisation was best evidenced by confo...

Cell death occurs in physiological conditions and as a result of injury or disease. Programmed cell death has an important role in the development and homeostasis of human tissue. Aberrant regulation of this process is thought to cause numerous diseases, including developmental disorders, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer. Apoptosis is the main type of programmed cell death and is well unde...

asthma is one of the fastest growing syndromes in many countries and is adding a huge cost to the health care system. increasing reports have linked airway infectious diseases to asthma. influenza is one of the most serious airway infectious diseases and in recent years there have been some serious influenza virus pandemics which caused increased fatality in numerous different populations. dive...

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a physiological cell death process involved in the selective elimination of unwanted cells (Ellis et al., 1991). In animals, these unwanted cells include those that have served temporary functions, such as tadpole tail cells at metamorphosis; cells that are overproduced, such as vertebrate neurons; cells that are unwanted or present in inappropriate positions, suc...

Polyamines (PAs) have been considered as important molecules for survival. However, evidence reinforces that PAs are also implicated, directly or indirectly, in pathways regulating programmed cell death (PCD). Direct correlation of PAs with cell death refers to their association with particular biological processes, and their physical contact with molecules or structures involved in cell death....