Pathways to caspase activation

Apoptosis or programmed cell death is an active form of cell death which is essential for tissue homeostasis. Many proteins are involved in the molecular signal transduction of apoptosis. The caspase enzymes, a family of specific cysteine proteases, play a central role in cell death machinery. In this review, we mainly discuss the current understanding of several pathways to activate caspases and some key proteins related, to these pathways. (c) 2005 International Federation for Cell Biology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.