[Molecular mechanisms of apoptosis in the immune system]

Apoptosis is a controlled death process under regulation by multiple death and survival genes. In the immune systems, apoptosis has important roles in establishment of the mature immune system (embryological programmed cell death), in dynamic maintenance of functional cell number (physiological programmed cell death) and in elimination of unwanted cells (biochemical programmed cell death). The process of apoptosis is regulated by multiple genes and their products depending on different stimuli. The current knowledge on the molecular events of apoptotic cell death, particularly in thymocytes, is reviewed.