(Circulation. 1997;95:782-786.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
Life and Death in the Cardiovascular System
the Divisions of Molecular Medicine and Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, and Cardiovascular Research Center, Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, University of Texas–Houston Health Science Center.
Correspondence to Edward T.H. Yeh, MD, Division of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas–Houston Health Science Center, 6431 Fannin, Suite 4200, Houston, TX 77030.
Key Words: Editorials • apoptosis • free radicals • molecular biology
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Introduction |
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There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die.
Ecclesiastes 3:2
In recent years, the concept of apoptosis1 has swept through the fields of biology and medicine, creating a cultlike following in many disciplines, including cardiovascular research. This editorial is written explicitly to update the readers of Circulation on this fascinating and rapidly expanding field. The focus is on the concept of apoptosis relevant to cardiovascular diseases. Not all of the research areas in apoptosis can be covered in great depth in this editorial. Interested readers should consult several other excellent reviews for details.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
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Apoptosis: Definition and Detection |
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The word apoptosis was derived from Greek, meaning falling off of petals from a flower.1 A professor of Greek suggested this usage to his pathology colleagues at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the early 1970s to describe a form of cell death with distinct morphological features that was not widely recognized at that time. As shown in Fig 1A
, when a cell receives the signal to die an apoptotic death, it goes through a series of morphological changes that can be easily observed with the light microscope. Starting from shrinkage of cell membrane, to condensation of nuclear chromatin, to cellular fragmentation, to the engulfment of the apoptotic bodies by neighboring cells, apoptotic death follows a carefully orchestrated script.
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