EXPRESSION OF BCL-2 INHIBITS NECROTIC NEURAL CELL-DEATH

Cell death has been described as either apoptotic, in which the cell a ctively participates, or necrotic, in which the cell is felt to be pas sive. The proto-oncogene bcl-2 has been shown to inhibit apoptosis in some hematopoietic and neural cells, by an unknown mechanism. We demon strate that bcl-2 inhibits the necrosis of neural cells induced by glu tathione depletion. This finding demonstrates that bcl-2 does not inhi bit the cellular death program directly; rather, bcl-2 modulates a cel lular process that leads to apoptosis under some conditions but necros is under others. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.