Apoptosis: physiology and pathology

Apoptosis, or cell death, can be pathological, a sign of disease and damage, or physiological, a process essential for normal health. This pathological dysregulation of cell death can be characterized by either too much loss of essential cells in the heart, brain, and other tissues with little regenerative capacity or by too little cell turnover in self-renewing tissues, giving rise to cancer and other maladies. This is a process of fundamental importance for development and normal health, which is altered in many disease conditions. This book, with contributions from experts in the field, provides a timely compilation of reviews of mechanisms of apoptosis. The book is organized into three convenient sections. The first section explores the different processes of cell death and how they relate to one another. The second section focuses on organ-specific apoptosis-related diseases. The third section explores cell death in non-mammalian organisms, such as plants. This comprehensive text is a must-read for all researchers and scholars interested in apoptosis.