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Chapter category: Apoptosis

Caspase Cascades in Apoptosis

This chapter appears in the following book:

Caspases: Their Role in Cell Death and Cell Survival

Edited by: Marek Los and Henning Walczak
ISBN: 0-306-47441-7
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Colin Adrain, Emma M. Creagh and Seamus J. Martin


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Apoptosis can be thought of as a controlled demolition process that ensures the safe dismantling of cellular structures and removal of the resulting debris such that collateral damage to surrounding tissue is minimized. To achieve this aim, the agents of destruction must be well managed in order to ensure that they are not deployed under the wrong circumstances, or in the wrong order. As with any complex and potentially hazardous task, cellular demolition is best left in the hands of specialists that will coordinate the process and minimise the likelihood that things will happen in an unpredictable and chaotic way.

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Additional chapters from this book:

Other Methods of Caspase Activity Monitoring

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In Situ Activation of Caspases Revealed by Affinity Labeling Their Enzymatic Sites

Jerzy Grabarek and Zbigniew Darzynkiewicz

Activation of caspases is the key event of apoptosis as its initiates irreversible steps of the cell demise.1-9 Several methods, therefore, have been developed to monitor this event...

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Caspase-Independent Cell Death Mechanisms

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Different anticancer therapies including cytotoxic drugs, g-irradiation, suicide gene therapy or immunotherapy, appear to induce tumor cell death by activating key e...

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Caspases, Bcl-2 Family Proteins and Other Components of the Death Machinery: Their Role in the Regulation of the Immune Response

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The prime directive of the immune system is to defend the host. The threats can be external in the form of microbial pathogens or internal in the form of rebellious autoreactive or malignant c...

The Role of Caspases in Modulation of Cytokines and other Molecules in Apoptosis and Inflammation

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Virus-Encoded Caspase Inhibitors

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Modulation of Caspase Activity by Cellular Inhibitors

Klaus W. Wagner, Badry D. Bursulaya and Quinn L. Deveraux

Caspases are key effectors of the apoptosis process, therefore it is not surprising that mammals, as well as other species, evolved molecules that regulate caspases by directly binding and inh...

Mitochondrial/Apoptosome Dependent Activation of Caspases

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Many key biological processes, including caspase activation during apoptotic cell death are executed by large multi-protein complexes. Apoptosis can be initiated via death receptors or by pert...

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During the life span of a multicellular organism most cells die at a certain point. The decision to die serves the common purpose of all cells in such organisms which is self propagation. Mult...

Caspase Cascades in Apoptosis

Colin Adrain, Emma M. Creagh and Seamus J. Martin

Apoptosis can be thought of as a controlled demolition process that ensures the safe dismantling of cellular structures and removal of the resulting debris such that collateral damage to surro...

The Caspase Family

Mohamed Lamkanfi, Wim Declercq, Bart Depuydt, Michael Kalai, Xavier Saelens and Peter Vandenabeele

Caspases, a family of cysteinyl aspartate-specific proteases, are central mediators of apoptotic and inflammatory pathways. Caspases are synthesized as zymogens with a prodomain of variable length fol...

Apoptosis Dependent and Independent Functions of Caspases

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The study of cell death in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has led to the identification of several proteins which are responsible for orchestrating cell death. For each of these proteins,...


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