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Is caspase-dependent apoptosis only cell differentiation taken to the extreme?

Pasan Fernando^*, and Lynn A. Megeney^*,,1

^* Ottawa Health Research Institute, Molecular Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital, General Campus Ottawa, Ontario, Canada;

Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; and

StemPath Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

¹Correspondence: Ottawa Health Research Institute, Molecular Medicine Program, Ottawa Hospital, General Campus, Ottawa ON, K1H 8L6, Canada. E-mail: lmegeney{at}ohri.ca

ABSTRACT

The benefits of apoptosis for a multicellular organism are obvious and fit the current dogma that the maintenance and viability of such organisms are dependent on the selective elimination of unneeded or deleterious cell types. However, self destruction at the level of the individual cell defies the most basic precepts of biology (sustaining life). If apoptosis is viewed through this construct then one question becomes paramount, i.e., why would an individual cell and its progeny develop, retain, or evolve a mechanism the sole purpose of which is to eliminate itself? In consideration of such a paradox, it is reasonable to postulate that prospective apoptotic pathways coevolved with and or were co-opted from another basic cell function(s) that did not involve the death of the cell per se. In the following article, we present the hypothesis that the conserved biochemical pathways of apoptosis are integral components of terminal cell differentiation and it is the time of engagement and activity level of these pathways that ultimately determines the choice between cell death or cell maturation.—Fernando, P., Megeney, L. A. Is caspase-dependent apoptosis only cell differentiation taken to the extreme?

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