- Pyroptosis
Pyroptosis is a form of
programmed cell death associated with antimicrobial responses duringinflammation . In contrast toapoptosis , pyroptosis requires the function ofcaspase -1, [ [http://iai.asm.org/cgi/content/full/73/4/1907?etoc Fink, S. and Cookson, B. (2005) Apoptosis, Pyroptosis, and Necrosis: Mechanistic Description of Dead and Dying Eukaryotic Cells. Infection and Immunity 73, 1907-1916.] ] and has been studied in the context of salmonella-infected macrophages.Recently, it was shown that Caspase-1 is activated during pyroptosis by a large supramolecular complex termed the pyroptosome. [ Fernandes-Alnemri, T. et al (2007) Cell Death and Differentiation 14, 1590-1604.] Only one large pyroptosome is formed in each macrophage, within minutes after infection. Biochemical and Mass Spectroscopic analysis revealed that this pyroptosome is largely composed of dimers of the adaptor protein ASC.References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.