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Neuronal Cell Death: An Overview of Its Different Forms in Central and Peripheral Neurons

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Neuronal Cell Death

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1254))

Abstract

The discovery of neuronal cell death dates back to the nineteenth century. Nowadays, after a very long period of conceptual difficulties, the notion that cell death is a phenomenon occurring during the entire life course of the nervous system , from neurogenesis to adulthood and senescence , is fully established. The dichotomy between apoptosis , as the prototype of programmed cell death (PCD ), and necrosis , as the prototype of death caused by an external insult, must be carefully reconsidered, as different types of PCD: apoptosis, autophagy , pyroptosis , and oncosis have all been demonstrated in neurons (and glia ). These modes of PCD may be triggered by different stimuli, but share some intracellular pathways such that different types of cell death may affect the same population of neurons according to several intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Therefore, a mixed morphology is often observed also depending on degrees of differentiation , activity, and injury . The main histological and ultrastructural features of the different types of cell death in neurons are described and related to the cellular pathways that are specifically activated in any of these types of PCD.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Several years before Darwin published his famous book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), very interestingly Vogt used the German term Evolution, but in the meaning of development, which is more appropriately indicated with the German word Entwicklung.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Dr. Matthew Bradman for his critical reading of the text and useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Torino, Italy

    Laura Lossi & Adalberto Merighi

  2. Istituto Nazionale di Neuroscienze (INN), Turin, Italy

    Laura Lossi & Adalberto Merighi

  3. Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Turin, Via Leonardo da Vinci 44, 10095, Grugliasco, Turin, Italy

    Claudia Castagna

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  1. Laura Lossi
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  2. Claudia Castagna
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  3. Adalberto Merighi
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Correspondence to Adalberto Merighi .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, Grugliasco, Torino, Italy

    Laura Lossi

  2. Dept. of Veterinary Sciences, University of Torino, Grugliasco, Torino, Italy

    Adalberto Merighi

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Lossi, L., Castagna, C., Merighi, A. (2015). Neuronal Cell Death: An Overview of Its Different Forms in Central and Peripheral Neurons. In: Lossi, L., Merighi, A. (eds) Neuronal Cell Death. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1254. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2152-2_1

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