Dear Colleagues,

Apoptosis is a type of programmed cell death found in animals, first described in 1972 [Kerr et al. 1972]. As the authors mentioned in the original article, “The term apoptosis is proposed for a hitherto little recognized mechanism of controlled cell deletion, which appears to play a complementary but opposite role to mitosis in the regulation of animal cell populations”. It is known that apoptosis is involved in cell turnover in many healthy adult tissues, in both physiological involution and atrophy of various tissues and organs—such as in the female reproductive cycle and in the renewal of the epidermis and gastrointestinal mucosa—and is responsible for the focal elimination of cells during normal embryonic development—for example, during endochondral ossification and palatal fusion. On the other hand, anomalies in the regulation of cell death can play a significant role in some diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Whereas some situations are associated with insufficient apoptosis, others have an excess of apoptosis. Cell death by apoptosis can also be induced by noxious agents, in both the embryo and the adult animal.

Fifty years after its discovery (2022), we think that a Special Issue about the role of apoptosis in health and disease would be interesting, highlighting the balances/imbalances between apoptosis and the cell cycle and other associated events for the maintenance of tissue homeostasis, namely, differentiation, migration, and programmed cell clearance. For this Special Issue authors are invited to review recent work or submit original studies in all areas of cell death research, with an emphasis on the aforementioned balances/imbalances between apoptosis and other cellular processes and on novel physiological and pathological functions or regulatory mechanisms in normal tissues and in various diseases.

Reference

Kerr JF, Wyllie AH, Currie AR. 1972. Apoptosis: a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. Br. J. Cancer 26: 239–57.

Dr. Fernando Capela e Silva
Guest Editor

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