Apoptosis: A Way to Maintain Healthy Individuals

Apoptosis, the best known form of programmed cell death, is tightly regulated by a number of sensors, signal transducers and effectors. Apoptosis is mainly active during embryonic development, when deletion of redundant cellular material is required for the correct morphogenesis of tissues and organs; moreover, it is essential for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis during cell life. Cells also activate apoptosis when they suffer from various insults, such as damage to DNA or to other cellular components, or impairment of basic processes, such as replication and repair. Taking advantage of this property, apoptosis induction is widely used as a mean to kill cancer cells. In this chapter we will review the main features of developmental and induced apoptosis.