| Comments |
P.671 left column bottom paragraph:"The entire process, from the initial trigger to the destruction of the cell, can take hours or even days. But the events that concern [investigators] here, beginning with the first mitochondrial changes and culminating in the activation of caspases, often take about ten minutes, and it is strongly suspected that once these events proceed to the point of executioner caspase activation without constraint, the death of the cell may be inevitable. Here, [investigator] discuss[es] recent findings regarding these ten minutes, including caspase activation and the signals that cause mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP)." p.673 left column 2nd paragraph:"The results from Hao et al. (2005) help to keep cytochrome c center stage in the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis. Early in the “ten minutes” that concern [investigators] here, the proteins of the mitochondrial intermembrane space, including cytochrome c, are released in a sudden, all-or-nothing manner." p.674 right column 2nd paragraph:"These are emerging views of the “ten minutes” in
the death of a cell that include MOMP, cytochrome c-induced activation of APAF-1 [Apoptotic protease activating factor 1], and caspase activation—ten minutes that can occur at any time following the induction of apoptosis by a stress or other death signal but that probably condemn the cell to its demise.
What determines when and if a cell will face these crucial ten minutes remains murky, and [investigators] simply do not
know in most cases why MOMP and its consequences occur at a particular time hours (or days) after a cell is
triggered to die. As [investigators] refine [their] understanding of this
critical event, however, [they] reach new levels of appreciation of the delicate balance that is cellular survival in the complex multicellular individual." |