Life or Death in Cells

The Bcl-2 protein family members Bax and Bak play an important role in regulating apoptosis.1,2 But following their discovery in the 1990s, they did not take center stage because researchers didn't anticipate their role as "critical effectors of programmed cell death," says Craig Thompson, scientific director of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. But the limelight is now upon them as Thompson and his colleagues at the Abramson Institute, in collabora

Written byLeslie Pray

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"It is a terribly important step in the process," comments Douglas Green, an expert in the field of apoptosis and head of the cellular immunology division at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in Ontario, Calif. Of the newly discovered function of Bak and Bax, Green explains, "It will be one of the keys to the control of life and death in cells."

Many Bcl-2 protein family members have been implicated as major components of the mammalian apoptotic pathway. The anti-apoptotic members block apoptosis, whereas others, called the pro-apoptotic members, accelerate the process. Anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 (B-cell lymphocyte/leukemia-2 gene) was the first Bcl-2 family member identified.⁶ A whole suite of members have been identified since, including pro-apoptotic Bax (Bcl-2 associated protein X)¹ and Bak (Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer).² But virtually nothing was known about their underlying mechanisms.

Many scientists study the function of individual Bcl-2 proteins, including Bax and Bak, ...

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