APOPTOTIC FEATURES OF SELECTIVE NEURONAL DEATH IN ISCHEMIA, EPILEPSY AND GP120 TOXICITY

The occurrence of physiological cell death has been known for decades, but interest in the subject was renewed in 1972 when Kerr, Wyllie and Currie described in detail the ultrastructural changes characteristic of dying cells and coined the term apoptosis to describe the process. Cells display a wide variety of morphological changes when dying duri ng development or following a toxic insult. A binary classification sc heme suggests that physiologically appropriate death is due to apoptos is and that pathological mechanisms involve necrosis. However, recent studies indicate a potential involvement of apoptotic cell death in is chemia, status epilepticus and HIV-I infection.