R.P. Bissonnette, F. Escheverri, A. Mahboubi, D.R. Green, "Apoptotic cell-death induced by c-myc is inhibited by bcl-2,S Nature, 359:552-54, 1992.
Douglas Green (La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, California): "A fundamental paradox of multicellular life is that while cell proliferation is necessary for development, it is also one of the most potentially dangerous challenges to the integrity of the individual. That is, a single cell proliferating in an unregulated fashion can be fatal, which is in striking contrast to the effects of loss of other critical functions at the single-cell level, such as differentiation, adhesion, and locomotion. The solutions to this problem include the maintenance of barriers between cells, as seen in plants, and the restriction of the number of cell divisions during the life span, as seen in nematodes. Clearly, neither of these is applicable in such organisms as humans.
"Another way to resolve this paradox and still ...