Lecture 20: Apoptosis Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering concepts, cellular events, regulatory proteins, triggers, and pathological consequences of apoptosis from Lecture 20.

Apoptosis

A controlled method of cell death, also known as programmed self-destruction, crucial for normal development and good health.

Uncontrolled Cell Death

A process of cell death where the cell swells up and its contents leak away, causing damage to surrounding cells.

Phagocytosis in Apoptosis

The process where an altered apoptotic cell is rapidly engulfed by a neighboring cell or a macrophage before its contents can leak.

Caspases

Cellular proteases that mediate apoptosis by cleaving key cellular proteins, such as specific cytosolic proteins and nuclear lamins.

Procaspases

Inactive proenzymes that serve as precursors to caspases, typically activated through proteolytic cleavage by another member of the caspase family.

Death Receptors

Cell surface receptors that, when activated by docking death signals from outside the cell, trigger procaspase activation.

Caenorhabditis elegans

A species of soil worm used as a model organism to study the molecular mechanisms and proteins involved in apoptosis.

Ced-9

A protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane of C. elegans that prevents apoptosis under normal conditions and becomes inactivated when a death signal is received.

Ced-3

The chief caspase in the nematode C. elegans that promotes apoptosis.

Nuclear Lamins

Key structural proteins within the cell nucleus that are targeted and cleaved by activated caspases during apoptosis.

Apoptosis Failure

A decrease in normal cell death that leads to uncontrolled cell growth, potentially resulting in cancer.

Excessive Apoptosis

An overly active cell destruction process that can cause the wasting away of tissue, as observed in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.