Apoptosis is a form of regulated cell death (RCD) that involves proteases of the caspase family.
Pharmacological and genetic strategies that experimentally inhibit or delay apoptosis in mammalian systems have clarified the key role of this process not only in (post-)embryonic development and adult tissue homeostasis, but also in the etiology of numerous human disorders.
Consistent with this concept, while defects in the molecular machinery of apoptotic cell death impair organismal development and promote oncogenesis, unrestrained activation of apoptosis drives cell loss and tissue damage across a variety of neurological, cardiovascular, renal, hepatic, infectious, neoplastic, and inflammatory conditions.
In this context, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has convened to critically summarize the extensive preclinical literature that mechanistically links the core apoptotic machinery to organismal homeostasis within the framework of disease.
