What is an apoptosis -induction factor?
Programmed cell death (PCD) or apoptosis is a normal part of animal metabolism. Sometimes this process can occur at a poor developmental stage, causing the disease. Enzymes called Caspases are usually responsible for induction of cell death. An alternative process to achieve PCD is a protein called apoptosis inducting factor (AIF). This protein is placed in mitochondria and moves to the nucleus to cause DNA degradation and subsequent cellular death.
Apoptosis is a normal part of cellular metabolism. The human body constantly dies cells and then replaces them. If the process is not properly regulated, it may have a serious effect on human physiology. For example, cancer cells are subject to PCDs much less often than healthy cells and are able to spread and become tumors. Alternatively, if regulation causes apoptosis too often, cells can die when they are needed for tissue function.
mitochondria are cellular structures that are separated from the rest of the cell outer membraana. They also have an inner membrane. Between these two membranes is a space filled with liquid, which contains many proteins, especially those involved in generating energy for cells. In this space there is a factor of inducting apoptosis and works in the respiratory path.
Many proteins involved in bringing cell death are caspases, but an apoptosis factor is a completely different type of protein. This enzyme is flavoprotein, specialized protein connected to electron transmission. It is located in a wide range of eukaryotic cells, from people to pond ciliate organism tetrahymena.
When the early signals start the PCD, the outer membrane of mitochondria becomes leaking. AIF is released from its compartment in mitochondria and enters cytosol, a liquid cell environment. From there it reaches the nucleus. This protein causes the DNA fragmented in the core. In this process it affects the structural integrity of the nuclei nBy stepping the chromatin structure and brings early phase of the programmed cellular death. The control of the inducting apoptosis factor has been very thoroughly studied on animal models. This led to the correlation of the aif activity and death of neural cells. Diseases such as Lou Gehrig's disease correlate with such activity in animal studies. It is known that many human diseases are caused by functional problems with mitochondria. Another type of misregulation may cause an inducting apoptosis factor while it is still in its mitochondrial location. Genetic studies correlated mutations that affect AIF, while located in its normal celluler compartment into a number of human diseases on the basis of mitochondria disorder.