Abstract
Apoptosis, a form of physiological cell death, has attracted considerable attention over the 20 years and a significant part of the molecular mechanisms involved has already been unveiled. However, there is considerable evidence to suggest that physiological cell death is not confined to apoptosis and that other mechanisms may also operate. Recently, we found such non-apoptotic cell death mechanisms. One of these mechanisms is the so-called 'autophagic cell death', which is a process that is dependent on autophagy, and another is the 'permeability transition-mediated necrosis', which is a process that is dependent on mitochondrial permeability increase. In this meeting, by describing some of the recent data concerning the novel macroautophagy process we discovered, I will discuss radiation-induced autophagy and cell death.
