The Role of Apoptosis in Development, Tissue Homeostasis and Malignancy : Death From Inside Out

The past five years have witnessed a remarkable development of interest in cell death 'from inside out'. After 30 years of relative obscurity, its quantitative importance in the building and maintenance of normal tissues, the subtle strategies involved in its regulation, and its significance in the pathogenesis of diseases of major social importance are becoming clear. Moreover, because a distinct set of biological events is involved in this death, these events themselves become reason­ able targets for new pharmacological agents in the treatment of cancer. The articles in this volume summarize the contents of a discussion meeting held at the Royal Society on 23 and 24 February 1994. The authors are a distinguished international group from a variety of disciplines in biology and medicine and hopefully their articles will convey something of the excitement of this fast-moving field. The three organizers are enormously indebted to all the contributors for the enthusiasm with which they delivered their talks, shared in discussion, and finally committed their contributions to these printed pages. We would also like to acknowledge the gracious way in which the Royal Society hosted the meeting, and in particular Mary Manning for making it the trouble-free and enjoyable experience that it was, and Janet Clifford and Simon Gribbin for skillfully managing the editorial processing of this volume. Michael Dexter June 1994 Martin Raff Andrew Wyllie x 1 Death from inside out: an overVIew ANDREW H. Front Matter....Pages i-x Death from inside out: an overview....Pages 1-5 The ins and outs of programmed cell death during C. elegans development....Pages 7-10 Programmed cell death in Drosophila ....Pages 11-14 Block of neuronal apoptosis by a sustained increase of steady-state free Ca 2+ concentration....Pages 15-20 Apoptosis in the haemopoietic system....Pages 21-27 Programmed cell death and the control of cell survival....Pages 29-32 Integrated control of cell proliferation and cell death by the c- myc oncogene....Pages 33-39 The role of the p53 protein in the apoptotic response....Pages 41-44 Apoptosis regulated by a death factor and its receptor: Fas ligand and Fas....Pages 45-51 Insights from transgenic mice regarding the role of bcl -2 in normal and neoplastic lymphoid cells....Pages 53-59 Molecular mechanisms for B lymphocyte selection: induction and regulation of antigen-receptor-mediated apoptosis of mature B cells in normal mice and their defect in autoimmunity-prone mice....Pages 61-65 Fas-based d10S-mediated cytotoxicity requires macromolecular synthesis for effector cell activation but not for target cell death....Pages 67-73 Life, death and genomic change in perturbed cell cycles....Pages 75-81 Apoptosis and cancer chemotherapy....Pages 83-89 Granulocyte apoptosis and the control of inflammation....Pages 91-97 Back Matter....Pages 99-101 The role of programmed cell death is recognised as being important in a number of key biological processes, particularly development and maintenance of a healthy organism. This volume, which arises from a Royal Society discussion meeting, provides an up-to-date overview of current research into programmed cell death from top international scientists. Key topics discussed include genetic control of programmed cell death in development, regulation of cell death in cancer cells, influence of signals, modulators and effectors on cell death and clinical applications. Each chapter provides good access to other relevant literature for those not familiar with the area