Paperback: 226 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 16, 2004)

Contents

Preface page xi
Acknowledgements and dedications xv
 
1   Dead or alive 1
      Movement 1
      Metabolism 2
      Sensory perception 3
      Reproduction 3
      Cell death: human analogies 7
 
2   How to die 15
      The undead 15
      The clearly dead 17
      Necrosis 18
      Apoptosis 20
      Situations where death might be initiated 23
      How long to die? 28
      Occurrence of apoptosis 29
      What’s in a name? A rose is a rose . . . 33
      Mitotic death 36
      Apoptosis versus necrosis 37
      DNA degradation 38
      How do we recognise apoptosis? 42
      Assessment of DNA fragmentation 43
      Assessment of protease activity in apoptosis 49
      Changes in apoptosis-regulatory proteins 52
      Membrane changes 54
      Morphology 56
      Cell death in cell cultures 57
 
3   What to wear and who clears up the rubbish? 61
 
4   To reproduce or die? 67
      Defining our terms 67
      DNA replication 69
      Cell division 71
      How do we recognise a proliferating cell? 75
      Recognition of cells replicating their DNA 77
      Cell cycle quiescence 84
      Cyclins 86
      Flow cytometry techniques 88
 
5   The judge, the jury, and the executioner – the genes that control cell death 91
      p53 – The guardian of the genome in embryos and adults 91
      Genes that determine survival or death – the bcl-2 family 98
      Apoptotic proteases 103
      The big picture 107
 
6   Stem cells 115
      What is a stem cell? 115
      Stem cell definition 120
      Stem cells and tissue injury 124
      Self-maintenance probability 126
      A test of functional competence for stem cells: clonogenic cells 126
      Are stem cells intrinsically different from transit cells? 129
      Differentiation options: pluripotency 130
 
7   An in vivo system to study apoptosis: the small intestine 136
      Proliferative organisation in the gut 136
      Apoptosis in the gut 151
      Apoptosis induced by other cytotoxics: are all cells programmed to die? 162
      Apoptosis in the large bowel and the role of bcl-2 164
      The adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene 167
      Small and large intestine cancer incidence figures 169
      Genome protection mechanisms 170
 
8   Cell death (apoptosis) in diverse systems 184
 
9   Measuring the levels of cell death (apoptosis) 189
 
Index 199