Miura M
Department of Molecular Neurobiology, University of Tsukuba.
Nihon Rinsho. 1996 Jul;54(7):1860-8.
Apoptosis is a process by which cells carry out their own execution by activating an orderly set of genetic and biochemical program. A genetic pathway of apoptosis has been identified in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The ced-3 gene is required for all programmed cell death in C. elegans. Mammalian homolog of ced-3 has been identified as Ice family which is newly identified cysteine protease. Overexpression of Ice/ced-3 family gene can induce apoptosis in a variety of mammalian cells, and inhibitors of Ice/ced-3 family effectively prevent apoptosis induced by a variety of stimulus. Several housekeeping genes have been shown to be targets of Ice/ced-3 family gene, indicating that activation of Ice/ced-3 can induce irreversible fatal changes of cells.
细胞凋亡是细胞通过激活一系列有序的遗传和生化程序来自我执行死亡的过程。在线虫秀丽隐杆线虫中已鉴定出细胞凋亡的遗传途径。ced-3基因是秀丽隐杆线虫所有程序性细胞死亡所必需的。ced-3的哺乳动物同源物已被鉴定为Ice家族，这是新发现的半胱氨酸蛋白酶。Ice/ced-3家族基因的过表达可在多种哺乳动物细胞中诱导细胞凋亡，而Ice/ced-3家族的抑制剂可有效预防多种刺激诱导的细胞凋亡。已证明几种管家基因是Ice/ced-3家族基因的靶点，这表明Ice/ced-3的激活可诱导细胞发生不可逆的致命变化。
