MINI-REVIEW: Programmed Cell Death: Historical Notes from Russia

---

B. Zhivotovsky^1,2

¹Faculty of Basic Medicine, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 117192 Moscow, Russia

²Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden

Received July 12, 2020; Revised July 12, 2020; Accepted July 16, 2020

---

The investigation of cell death mechanisms is one of the fastest growing areas of modern biomedicine. A particular interest in this research topic arose in 1972 after publication of an article by Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie, in which apoptosis, one of the types of cell death, was first considered as a basic biological phenomenon regulating tissue homeostasis. Several Russian groups involved in the investigation of the mechanisms of radiation-induced cell death have drawn attention to the similarity between these two mechanisms. Unfortunately, these studies have been for a long time inaccessible to the international scientific community. These introductory remarks attempt to restore the chain of events that have taken place during the past 50 years.

---

KEY WORDS: apoptosis, radiation, mitochondria, nucleases, proteases

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297920100016

---