Chapter category: Neurodegenerative Disease

Paved with Good Intentions: The Link Between Cell Cycle and Cell Death in the Mammalian Central Nervous System

This chapter appears in the following book:

Cell-Cycle Mechanisms and Neuronal Cell Death

Edited by: Agata Copani and Ferdinando Nicoletti
ISBN: 0-306-47850-1
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Yan Yang and Karl Herrup

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Cell division is among the most basic of biological processes. All life forms, from blue-green algae to human hepatocytes, ultimately depend for their survival on the ability of one cell to create two. In keeping with the centrality of this process, the component enzyme systems have been well conserved in evolution. But while unicellular creatures such as bacteria, protozoa and yeast are free to divide whenever the nutrient source is adequate, multicellular organisms must tightly regulate the division of their constituent cells if they are to maintain their correct size and shape. Given this requirement, it is not surprising that the activities of the various cell cycle enzymes are regulated by a large and complex network of gene products. Indeed since life itself depends on the existence of a vigorous cell division process, it is nearly axiomatic that complex organisms must have an equally robust series of mechanisms to hold the cell cycle in check. Nowhere is this need for cellular restraint more crucial than in the adult central nervous system.

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Chapter category: Neurodegenerative Disease

Paved with Good Intentions: The Link Between Cell Cycle and Cell Death in the Mammalian Central Nervous System

Additional chapters from this book:

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