Role of mitochondria in apoptosis

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In living cells, especially eukaryotes, mitochondria involvement appears to be important in the general status of every aspect of life. Apoptosis as a programmed cell death is mandatory to all life process thus, mitochondria might be describe as organelles that serves as a gatekeeper to trap a variety of proapototic protein and prevent the functions of this proteins in the cytosol. The release of this protein into the cytosol induces apoptosis, because mitochondria has been implicated as a major control center regulating and inducing apoptosis this induction of apoptosis leads to the growth of various new cells,cells turnover and tissue homeostasis, embryogenesis, induction and maintenance of immune tolerance, development of the nervous system and endocrine-dependent tissue atrophy (Fadok, 2000). Apoptosis has many distinctive features that give away its presence to a trained eye, however, the apoptotic bodies are ultimately swallowed by neighbouring cells or macrophages (Savill & Fadok, 2000). Although the exact speed of the process depends on the cell type, in most case the whole episode is over within a few hours (Wyllie, 1997, Cummings et al., 1997). Morphological changes of the apoptotic cells, including condensation of chromatin and cytoplasm, fragmentation of the cell and apoptotic body formation, can be detected by using light microscopy (Daugas et al., 2000).

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Role of mitochondria in apoptosis

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