Apoptosis and Heart Failure

Abstract

Programmed cell death (apoptosis) was unknown to William Osler and Paul Dudley White, but physicians today must grapple with the uneasy knowledge that all of our cells actively maintain the machinery of self-destruction and must continuously hold it in check to avoid that fate.Apoptosis was first observed as a driving force that shapes the structure of tissues during embryonic development. A familiar example is the separation of the digits of our hands and feet from the blunt ends of the fetal limbs. Today, we also recognize apoptosis as a mechanism whereby damaged cells are removed from the body during . . .