BIOCHEMISTRY OF CELL-DEATH

Apoptosis is a common feature of the nervous system, occurring physiol ogically during development and pathologically in several diseases. In view of the latter, pathways that regulate apoptosis in neurones are of particular interest, and recent advances in this field implicate se veral signalling pathways in the induction of apoptosis, after withdra wal of nerve growth factor. Recent information drawn from both mammali an and invertebrate models enables us to assign components of the apop totic pathway as either regulators or effecters.