[Intracellular signal transduction pathway and its relation to lymphomagenesis]

An increasing number of reports have suggested that aberration in signal transduction and apoptosis is involved in the development of malignant lymphoma. This review summarizes the signal transduction pathway and the apoptotic cascade that are tightly regulated in relation to each other. Increased cell growth and proliferation is as important in lymphomagenesis as decreased programmed cell death. NPM/ALK chimeric protein and Bcl-2 overexpression are such good examples respectively. TNFR family including its viral analogue, LMP1 display diverse effects on cell proliferation and apoptosis through TRAF mediated NF-kappa B signaling pathway, and are key molecules especially in virus-associated lymphoma, such as EBV and HTLV-I.