Abstract
The death of cells can be classified as either necrosis, usually the result of tissue damage or insult, or apoptosis, an active process of cellular self-destruction. Apoptosis can be distinguished by its characteristic morphological features such as cell shrinkage, nuclear condensation, and irreversible DNA fragmentation (Tenniswood et al., 1992). In most cell types, apoptosis requires gene transcription and activation of specific proteases which mediate destruction of the cell without release of intracellular contents or initiation of an immune response (Vaux and Strasser, 1996; Zhivotovsky et al., 1997). In addition to genes linked to activation of apoptosis, genes associated with repression of apoptosis, such as bcl-2, have been identified (Craig, 1995; Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996). Thus, the regulation of apoptosis within a cell reflects a balance between antiapoptotic and proapoptotic gene products. Extracellular influences on this balance include physiological triggers of apoptosis, cell-type-specific “survival factors,” and the components of the extracellular matrix (Tenniswood et al., 1992; Goberdhan et al., 1996; Merio et al., 1997). The recognition that mutations in critical components or regulators of the apoptotic pathway, such as p53 and bcl-2, may be linked to cancer development or therapeutic responsiveness has emphasized the importance of apoptosis in the context of tumor biology (Barry et al., 1990; Lowe et al., 1993; Yang and Korsmeyer, 1996).
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Welsh, J., VanWeelden, K., Flanagan, L., Byrne, I., Nolan, E., Narvaez, C.J. (1998). The Role of Vitamin D3 and Antiestrogens in Modulating Apoptosis of Breast Cancer Cells and Tumors. In: Quinn, P.J., Kagan, V.E. (eds) Fat-Soluble Vitamins. Subcellular Biochemistry, vol 30. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1789-8_11
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