Cell Suicide and Cell Death

Abstract

Cell death remains an obscure biological phenomenon from the point of view of mechanism. The role of cell death in normal development and metamorphosis, in a wide variety of diseases including many of toxicological origin and in the chemotherapy and radiotherapy of diseases of abnormal growth, is sufficiently clear cut to establish it as an important problem that warrants a solution. Also, even a partial answer to the question ‘what do you have to do metabolically to a cell to kill it’ would give important new insight into some of the essential features of cell organization and integration basic to its vitality. Despite these considerations, the biochemical pathogenesis of cell death continues to receive little attention.