A PDF document of this newsletter, more suitable for printing, is available. PDF documents require Adobe Acrobat Reader . Neuroscientists and immunologists are scrutinizing this natural self-destruct mechanism in people with MS and in animal models of the disease.
Apoptosis comes from the Greek word for leaves dropping off of trees.
And like this autumn ritual, apoptosis is a normal phenomenon in the biologic life of most organisms. Through a complex series of actions that are still being discovered, a signal is sent to the genes inside a cell, advising them that the cell is no longer necessary. The genes trigger a sort of suicide. During this process, a signal, still under study, advises the genes inside a cell that the cell is no longer necessary. Finally the cell breaks into small pieces that are swallowed up by neighboring cells.