Recommend Cell Cycle to your librarian for 2008. Download form here.

Sign up for Table of Contents Alerts.

home subscribe search archive forthcoming

Email this page Print this page

Perspectives

Switch Between Apoptosis and Autophagy: Radiation-Induced Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress?

Luigi Moretti, Yong I. Cha, Kenneth John Niermann and Bo Lu

volume 6 | issue 7

1 April 2007
Pages: 793 - 798

We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.

The induction of cell death by radiation has largely been attributed to pro-apoptotic mechanisms. Autophagy, an alternative form of programmed cell death, has recently been shown to contribute significantly to anti-neoplastic effects of radiation therapy. In light of this, ER stress has been shown to trigger both apoptosis and autophagy, and act as an important mediator linking the two programmed cell death pathways. Recent data reveal that ER stress leads to activation of autophagosome formation with LC3 conversion via either PERK-eIF2α pathway or IRE1-JNK pathway. In this focused review, we summarize the main molecular mediators that control cellular “switches” between apoptosis and autophagy pathways by utilizing radiation therapy as a model.

Authors

Luigi Moretti

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Yong I. Cha

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Kenneth John Niermann

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Bo Lu

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine



We now provide open access to journal articles published online for one year or more. This article may be downloaded at the following link:
 Download PDF

If the document does not open, please right-click on the link (control-click on a Macintosh) and select the option to save the file to disk.