ABSTRACT

I. INTRODUCTION The biology of neoplasia has expanded to incorporate not only lesions that cause dysregulated growth but also those that lead to inefficient cell death. In biological systems, cell death can be separated into two highly distinct events: apoptotic death and necrotic death (Raff, 1998). The latter usually occurs in myocardial infaction and in stroke associated with massive cell damage, whereas the former is a genetically programmed process often occurring as part of natural physiological processes, not only in the destruction of unwanted cells during development but also in the negative selection of lymphocytes and thymocytes, the attenuation of autoimmunity, and as a phenomenon in maintaining proliferative homeostasis (Raff, 1998).