Apoptosis: an identical central or collateral mechanism in the development, function and death of neurons

The author shows that the previously known and recently re-described and explained process called apoptosis, or program cell death, applies not only to the morphologic and functional development of the embryo and the organism at any age, but as well to the induction and/or promotion of many major diseases. The death of cells which do not disappear mitotically being replaced by two daughter cells, the neurons, serves as an example of the extremely important role of apoptosis in the mechanisms of neuro-psychiatric diseases, which merits to create as much research interest as mitosis has generated.