Apoptosis in health and disease.

Two distinct forms of cell death are known, necrosis which results from physical or chemical insult and apoptosis or programmed cell death results from programming within the cell for self destruction in response to internal and external stimuli. Apoptosis is a genetically governed process of cell death occurring in development and maintenance of multicellular organisms. It occurs to get rid of individual cells that become unwanted for various reasons or that present a threat to the organism. It is accompanied by distinct morphological changes. DNA fragmentation in most cases, and appears to be caused by the activities of specific genes. Its defective regulation may play a part in the aetiology of cancer, AIDS, autoimmune and degenerative diseases. Apoptosis offers potential for prevention and therapeutic modulation of these disorders.