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Cancer research has disclosed an intimate relationship between the genetic control of physiological cell proliferation and pathological cell proliferation. Whether a similar relationship exists between the physiological neural cell death that occurs predominantly during development and the pathological neural cell death that occurs during neurodegenerative diseases is not yet clear. In fact, data exist that argue both for and against such a relationship. Here, the emerging relationship between the biochemical mechanisms involved in developmental and degenerative neural cell death is described. Many of the neurodegeneration- associated mutant gene products induce a pro-apoptotic phenotype in cultured neural cells. In addition, neurodegeneration-associated gene products are over-represented as substrates for caspases, the cysteine proteases that serve as the executioners during apoptosis. These findings are beginning to define the relationship between developmental and degenerative neural cell death.
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Tissue Engineering
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