Abstract
Recently, it has become clear that apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, plays an active role in the maintenance of homeostasis of cells as well in the morphological sculpting of organisms during development1,2. Some of the best characterized examples of apoptosis may be found in the immune system. For example, apoptosis is the mechanism used during negative selection in the thymus to remove self-reactive T cells3–5. Thymic T cells also are quite susceptible to induction of apoptosis by either glucocorticoids or ionizing radiation6,7. Additionally, more recent data indicate that peripheral lymphocytes undergo apoptosis following a variety of different stimuli and, in many instances, cell death in activated peripheral T cells may be traced to Fas/FasL interactions8–10.
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Osborne, B.A., Smith, S.W., McLaughlin, K.A., Grimm, L., Morgan, G., Goldsby, R.A. (1996). Genetic Regulation of Apoptosis in the Mouse Thymus. In: Gupta, S., Cohen, J.J. (eds) Mechanisms of Lymphocyte Activation and Immune Regulation VI. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 406. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0274-0_21
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