Hill Michelle M, Adrain Colin, Martin Seamus J
Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory, Department of Genetics, Smurfit Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Mol Interv. 2003 Feb;3(1):19-26. doi: 10.1124/mi.3.1.19.
Apoptosis (programmed cell death) is a physiological process used to eliminate superfluous, damaged, infected, or aged cells in multicellular organisms. During apoptosis the cellular architecture is dismantled from within in a highly controlled fashion. Members of the caspase family of cysteine proteases are responsible for the destructive phase of apoptosis. One major pathway to caspase activation involves the formation of a multisubunit protease activation complex called the apoptosome. The apoptosome is assembled in response to signals that provoke mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization and the release of cytochrome c into the cytosol. Recent studies indicate that the apoptosome is a wheel-like structure consisting of seven molecules of Apaf-1 and a similar number of caspase-9 dimers. Knowledge of the structure of the apoptosome will likely lead to the design of therapeutic modulators of apoptosis.
细胞凋亡（程序性细胞死亡）是多细胞生物体中用于清除多余、受损、受感染或衰老细胞的生理过程。在细胞凋亡过程中，细胞结构以高度可控的方式从内部被拆解。半胱氨酸蛋白酶的半胱天冬酶家族成员负责细胞凋亡的破坏阶段。半胱天冬酶激活的一条主要途径涉及形成一种称为凋亡小体的多亚基蛋白酶激活复合物。凋亡小体是响应引发线粒体外膜通透性增加和细胞色素c释放到细胞质中的信号而组装的。最近的研究表明，凋亡小体是一种轮状结构，由七个Apaf-1分子和数量相似的半胱天冬酶-9二聚体组成。对凋亡小体结构的了解可能会导致凋亡治疗调节剂的设计。
